It's Going to be a Long Day
by Jacky the Serket
Summary: One day, six kids decided to play a game. What they do not know, however, is what lies ahead of them once they press start. With the real possibility of death, a lack of knowledge on what to do, confusing timelines, apparent trolls and a destroyed home planet, what could this game throw at them? And more importantly, will they be able to win?
1. It's going to be a long day

A redheaded girl laid down on her bed, in her home in western America. She was currently listening to some music on her phone, her earbuds planted in her ears like normal. She often did this when she was bored. It was easy to lose herself to her wide selection of music, mostly rock and metal. That's about it.

The girl's room was decorated with all kinds of posters, mostly advertising the different bands that she listened to. In the corner of her room there was a guitar that she once tried to play, but she couldn't get the hang of it, so it was doomed to stay there until she was tired of seeing it in her room.

On the far side of her room, opposite of the bed, was a small terrarium where she kept all of her pet spiders. She had many of those pets and...they don't last long. The oldest one has been alive for about a year, and even then the redhead was sure it was dead. It rarely ever moved and she often had to put food right next to it so it could eat. Waste of space, really.

Alma removed one of her earbuds to listen to her surroundings. When she heard the whirring of a power drill, like she did an hour before, she put the earbud back in her ear and continued to browse the internet. Her dad was making another stupid piece of furniture. Probably another birdhouse. Her father was obsessed with birds, and she had no idea why…but that's not what we're focusing on! What is the girl's name?

ALMA SUMMERS

That's right! Her name is Alma Summers, and she's your typical teenage girl, and with your typical teenage girl there comes typical interests. For Alma, her interests seemed to be rock music and spiders. Kind of edgy, huh? Well, she'd disagree with you, that's for sure. She doesn't find herself edgy...though who's going to admit they're edgy? Well, whatever. Let's just keep moving.

Suddenly, her phone notified her of a message on her pesterchum. It must have been one of her friends. She had many online friends, much more than her real life friends, which she had none of. Unfortunately, she couldn't meet any of them in real life. They're too far away. Distance was stupid, wasn't it? Alma opened her pesterchum app and began to pester with her chums. ...who calls friends "chums" anymore? Ugh, whatever.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has begun pestering almandCream (AC)**

TT: Hello, Alma. How are you doing today?

AC: im doing pretty good.

AC: just bored out of my mind because i got nothing to do

AC: and my dad is making something downstairs, like always.

AC: its annoying.

TT: So, it's what happens everyday?

AC: just about.

TT: That sounds nice.

TT: Hey, have you heard of a game called SBURB?

AC: sburb? no, never heard of it. why?

TT: Well, you see, I have obtained the game and I thought you wanted to play it.

TT: All three of us can play.

TT: You, me and Hope, if she's available.

AC: the mail actually goes to that little island of yours?

TT: Well, I'm sure the mail goes just about anywhere.

TT: The mail is an unstoppable force, you know.

TT: They go through rain, sleet and snow just to deliver parcels and letters. It is truly a brave thing that the mail people do. They are the soldiers of free speech and delivery between long distances. They are the bringers of news, good or bad. It's a thing we really take for granted, but I'm glad it's there.

AC: ...holy shit.

AC: you realized you just went on a rant about mail, right?

TT: You realize my opinions on the matter now, right?

AC: yes, i do.

TT: Very good. Now, do you want to play with me and Hope?

AC: its just going to be us three?

AC: why not ask our other friends?

TT: I tried. I couldn't contact them. I'll try later.

TT: Honestly, EE is probably just taking a nap. I'll contact him in an hour or so.

AC: yeah, that guys always asleep.

AC: so lazy.

TT: Yes, very.

TT: So, are you in or not?

AC: yeah yeah im in.

AC: im guessing i can buy the game at a store?

TT: That should be the correct guess.

TT: You could just go to the nearest gaming store and it should be there.

TT: That's how my sister had gotten the game for me, and I thank her for that.

AC: okay, so i should probably head out then.

TT: Yes, you probably should.

TT: In the meantime, I'll be cleaning my room.

AC: okay you always clean your room really you should give the dust a chance to settle.

TT: No, I will not rest until everything is clean. There is so much that could be cleaned. I haven't checked under my bed in two days. You know how much can collect under there?

AC: no i don't and i really don't want to.

AC: anyways, i'll be leaving. have fun with your cleaning.

AC: i'll have to talk to my dad and ask for money.

AC: that should be fun.

TT: Yes, well, goodbye. Stay safe. I will see you later.

AC: yep see ya.

 **AlmandCream (AC) has ceased Pestering TroubleTimes (TT)**

Alma turned her phone off and sat up on her bed. She put her phone in her pocket and grabbed a lighter that laid on a nightstand near her bed. She grabbed a small cigarette packet and opened it up. Only two cigarettes left? Ugh. She'd have to buy some more, then. Always a pain.

Alma flicked her lighter on and moved the flame towards the end of the cigarette. Once it hung there for a few moments, she put the cigarette to her mouth and inhaled. She stood up, moving the cigarette from her mouth and exhaling. As she took another puff of her cigarette, she walked over to her room window and opened it to let in some fresh air. She would rather not choke on smoke.

Alma rested her elbow against the windowsill and rested her head on her hand as she looked out the window. She watched the cars zooming past and could hear the horns honking over the sound of her father's construction. The city was always so loud. She hated it. No one could keep quiet and let her listen to her music in peace.

The redhead shook her head and walked towards the door. She needed to get out of here and talk to her dad about giving her some money. It shouldn't be a long conversation. Her dad doesn't talk much at all, and when he does it's short sentences, and they're so quiet you usually can't hear him over all of the construction he does.

Alma grabbed the doorknob and, with another puff of her cigarette, turned it and opened it. The construction sounds were amplified as the barrier was removed and Alma winced slightly, turning up her rock music to ear damaging levels. Her father was so noisy...he should just quiet…

Alma sighed and began her way down the stairs. On her way down, she pushed the end of her cigarette against the wall and put it in a small wastebasket next to the stairs. Her father knew that she smoked, and he'd often ask her to stop doing it. Alma wasn't going to, but the only reason why she threw away her cigarette was so they didn't have to have that conversation again.

The girl reached the end of the stairs and walked into the living room, finding that it was filled with sawdust, piles of wood and two-by-fours, and woodshop tools. This wasn't a new sight for Alma. When school was still in session, she woke up to this sight every morning, and often her dad was even adding more cup up wood to the pile. Does this guy ever sleep?

Alma then walked into the kitchen, where her father was taking a saw to a small, carved owl. Well, it was better than a bird house, but it was still something having to do with birds. Her dad was really weird…

"Hey, dad?" she asked. The father, as soon as he heard his daughter, stopped the saw and looked towards her with a tilted head, saying nothing.

"Can I have, like, twenty bucks? I want to buy a game to play with my friends. It probably costs twenty bucks."

The father thought for a moment before nodding, smiling at his daughter.

"Oh, you'll give it to me?" Alma asked, almost surprised by the answer. She nodded and walked over to her parental figure. Once she got there, she put one hand on her hip and held out her other hand. "Well, hand it over, then."

Her father then, to her displeasure, shook his head, causing the girl to frown. Her father had an idea, and his ideas were usually pretty stupid, so Alma was not happy about this.

"What is it?" she asked, and in response, her father handed her a paint brush and gestured to the owl he was sculpting out of wood. Alma looked at the brush and then at the owl and then at her father. "You want me to paint this thing?"

The father nodded and pulled out his own paintbrush. He looked pleased with himself. Like he was finally able to get some father and daughter time with his little girl, but the daughter didn't looked as pleased as the father.

"Fine, fine, whatever," she muttered. "Where's the paint? Let's get this over with…"

This was going to take a while...let's look at something else.

=== Be the other girl


	2. This Is a Mess!

We are now moving on to the other girl! The one with the pesterchum name of troubleTimes. That's obviously not her name, of course. Her actual name is Echo Havrik. Currently the girl was sitting in her room, staring at her computer screen and waiting for her friend to come back. After a minute or two, she decided to not waste her time with this and looked around her room, trying to find anything that was out of order.

Nothing seemed to be out of order, though. The bookshelf that she had didn't have a book out of place. They were all in alphabetical order. The biggest book there was a giant book about the scientific field of psychology. She always found interest in psychology, and seeing how other people act. The human mind was a wonderful thing, really.

Everything else in her room was spotless, as well. There was a small globe on top of the bookshelf, with multiple pins pinned into it to show where in the world her online friends were. They were all in America, it seemed. It was unfortunate, too. She was an entire country away, as she live in Canada, but not just any place in Canada. A barren, lonely island in the Hudson Bay. It was a bad place to live, but she didn't have a choice in picking out the location. That was her sister's job, which she obviously failed.

Her sister was the only person to leave the island. Her sister left the island for hours at a times, and on the rare occassion, days at a time. Echo never found herself needing company, though, for there was also one other person living on this island...or at least she was pretty sure she was on this island.

The girl's name was Hope, and Echo hadn't met her until a few weeks ago. She didn't know where the girl had come from, but...she wasn't going to question it. Besides her sister, who she didn't really like, Hope was the only person who could give Echo some physical company. Sure, Hope was odd, but it was better than her sister.

Echo didn't know where Hope was, though, which was why she was so focused on the game, SBURB. Speaking of which, she forgot to put the game in the computer! It was actually in her kitchen. She didn't know how she forgot it there, but it was probably time to go get it.

Before she could get out of the swivel chair in front of her computer, though, her computer gave a ringing noise to notify her that she got a message on pesterchum. Her eyes scanned the screen as she recognized the screen name. Oh, this one again. This should be interesting.

 **gammaThirteen (GT) has begun trolling troubleTimes (TT)**

GT: HEY man

GT: JUSt waNTEd to SEE how IT'S goiNG.

TT: It's going well, thank you for asking, apparent alien person, though I still have a hard time in believing that.

GT: NICe.

GT: WHAt arE YOu doING?

TT: I was just about to go get my copy of SBURB from the kitchen. I seem to have left it there.

GT: OH, Yeah, YOU're gOINg to PLAy thE GAme.

GT: NICe.

TT: Yes, I am going to play that game with my friends.

TT: Have you played it already?

GT: WELl, i gUESs yoU COuld SAY thaT.

TT: Well, is it an enjoyable experience?

GT: YOU can SAY thaT TOo, huMAN.

GT: I DOn't wANT to sPOIl anYTHing, SO My moUTH's shUT.

TT: Okay, fine.

TT: …

TT: I know I've asked this before, but why do you type like that?

GT: IT Just...FEEls rIGHt, i gUESs.

GT: I can just not do that. Not like I have to, but, uh…

GT: IT FeelS WEird. I LIke tHIS mucH BEtteR.

TT: Right. It just seems annoying to type like that, to me.

GT: YOU get USEd to IT AfteR A WhilE.

TT: Right, if you say so.

TT: Now, I am going to get my game now, if that's alright with you.

TT: So I must be leaving.

GT: OKAy, seE YOu, huMAN.

 **gammaThirteen (GT) ceased trolling troubleTimes (TT)**

That guy was always a very weird person. Echo found herself asking many questions about this person. Why did he claim he was an alien? A troll, wasn't it? Why did pesterchum say he was trolling her, when he hasn't done anything that could consider trolling? Why did he choose to type in such an annoying manner? How did he figure out her screen name?

Echo shook her head and sighed. She was used to being a know it all, so not knowing something like this got under her skin. Of course, it didn't leave her up at night, coming up with conspiracy theories like some kind of loon, but it was still annoying. She'd have to interrogate the "troll" later. Right now, she needed to get the game.

Echo stood up from her swivel chair and pushed it close to the desk so it could take up as little space as possible. She then went to the door and grabbed the doorknob. She wanted to get in the kitchen, grab the game, and get back into her room as fast a possible. Her room was often left a mess when she was gone for longer than a few seconds. That was one of the reasons why she never left her room, honestly. Only for breakfast. She didn't even have to worry about school. She took online classes.

Echo opened the door and stepped outside, humming to herself as she took a quick look around. Even as she stepped out of her room she already got the feeling that someone was watching her, but as she looked around, she saw that nothing was there. It was probably just her sister. She snuck around the house all the time. Echo didn't know why, but her sister always had some crazy behavior. It was normal for her by now.

Echo made her way to the kitchen, keep her senses alert as she looked for her sister. She knew she hadn't left yet. She didn't hear the door open or close, and a quick look outside confirmed that her sister was still on the island, since there was a boat in the water still. A small boat, too. It was a surprise that it could get to the mainland, but Echo didn't mind at all. If it gets her sister away from here, she's fine with it.

The girl then adjusted her glasses and noticed her copy of SBURB on the kitchen counter. She quickly grabbed it. Yes, grabbed. Not captchalogued. If she capthalogued it then she had to come up with some silly password for it, and she was not up for that. Not one bit.

As Echo turned to leave the kitchen, her attention turned to the window. Outside, the snow was falling in such a huge amount that it was practically a blizzard. Echo was certainly happy she wasn't outside at the moment. Of course, since she didn't go outside, she was considerably paler than kids her age, but it's not like she has interaction with many kids her age, so she rarely ever had that fact pointed out to her. Maybe during the first video hat with her friends, but that was about it.

Echo shook her head and turned back to her room, just in time to hear the floorboards creak and see a figure dressed in black running out of her room. That was her sister, no doubt about it. She was out of her room for too long, and her sister decided to ruin her day. Echo sighed and made her way to her room. She stepped inside and looked around.

It was an absolute mess, yes. The books that were in her bookshelf were pulled out and scattered on the floor, and the pins on her globe were on the floor, as well as the globe itself. There was a big dent in the Land Down Under, leaving a crater in the plastic earth's surface. Poor kangaroos.

Echo shook her head. Well, someone had to clean this room up, and there was only one person that was actually going to do it in this household. Her sister was too disorganized to clean anything up. It was up to her to right this wrong.

=== Echo: Equip broom

Thankfully, the broom was not in her modus, but instead in her strife specibus, so she didn't have to put in any silly passwords. It wasn't that she forgot all of these passwords, it's just that she didn't like them because she often put in something stupid. When you're put on the spot to think of a password, you have to just do the first thing that comes to mind.

Echo had picked out her specibus a long time ago, when her sister first gave it to her. She actually gave her two specibus cards. Echo had a choice for her first card, and she picked broom, while her sister picked the other weapon kind. She choose fistkind and since then Echo has not found a reason to use it. She didn't even have any fist weapons. That was her sister.

Echo shook her head and ran the thistles of the broom across the floor. Well, couldn't dwell on that forever, now, could she? She had to focus on cleaning up this mess.

=== Echo: Clean up this mess

She was already planning on cleaning up this mess, thank you very much. You didn't need to give her the pointless command. She knew what she was doing. She did it hundreds of times before.

Honestly, Echo was almost glad that she didn't catch her sister in the act of messing up her room. She had that happen once, and that didn't turn out well. She remembered walking in her room to see her sister standing over her turned over bookshelf. Her sister had turned to her with a crazy look in her eyes before attacking her with her vacuum. Yeah, she had the vacuum. Echo had always been envious of her sister's vacuum, which would make cleaning up easier, but at the same time...she wasn't sure if she could get rid of her trusty broom.

Echo got to cleaning up, brushing any possible debris to one corner of the room. She'd pick up the pile later. For now, she had to put her books away, see if the damage to the globe was really permanent, and make sure there wasn't anything written in her books. Echo was so caught up with cleaning that she didn't notice the notifications that were making her computer light up with new messages.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has started pestering exagerateEfficiently(EE)**

TT: Greetings, friend.

TT: Do you happen to be online?

TT: Or are you taking a nap?

TT: ...I'll assume the latter.

TT: Well, just contact me when you wake up. I want to ask you about a game known as SBURB.

EE: Oh, crap.

EE: Sorry, dude.

EE: I fell asleep.

EE: You know me, I can get tired.

EE: Anyways, what's this about a game?

EE: ...Hello?

EE: Are you cleaning your room again?

EE: Fine. I'll check up in an hour. Hopefully you're done by then.

EE: I know you have very lengthy cleanups.

EE: See ya.

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has ceased trolling troubleTimes (TT)**

=== Echo: Be EE


	3. Sticky Strifes

We are now focusing on EE. Well, obviously his name wasn't EE, just like how Echo's name wasn't troubleTimes. His real name was Fate Flestin. Yes, he was a boy named Fate. Odd name, yes. Feel free to laugh if you want, but really Fate was just your average teenage boy, with his own average interests. ...though, you wouldn't be able to tell that by looking around his room. You'd only see a mess and nothing that represents his interests.

Even though the boy's interests aren't exactly visible, I'll be listing them off anyways. The boy has an interest in baseball, and somewhere in this room there was actually a baseball bat under all the clutter. Unfortunately, Fate wasn't good at baseball. He also had an interest in video games. The only system he had was the Gamecube, though, and that's it. He plays a game every now and then when he's bored, but he's also not good at video games. He had an interest in botany as well, and he actually wasn't that bad at the subject, but there was nothing to represent that. His most favorite hobby was lazing around and sleeping all day, which he excelled at.

Fate had just woken up a few minutes ago, and when he did he heard the notification sounds coming from his computer. He had turned the volume all the way up for situations just like this. He wasn't that heavy of a sleeper, but...sometimes it was hard to wake him up. Hopefully he hadn't kept someone waiting.

The green eyed boy, when he had awoken, stood out of his bed and navigated through the mess that was his room. He stepped past all of the piles of clothes and baseballs and made his way to the computer. He was lucky to have snagged a computer when he could. It was just in someone's yard for free. Yeah, there was some gross content on the computer, but Fate had deleted them while on the way home. Now there wasn't anything gross, and this computer was all his!

Fate noticed that his friend, Echo, had tried to contacted him. Even though he was still half asleep, he tried his best to respond to her. He was doing the basic thing when he wakes up to a conversation. Apologize for taking so long and then engaging in the conversation. Fate looked over his responses and was honestly surprised he didn't make any mistakes. What kind of sorcery was this?

Well, that doesn't matter. What does matter was that Echo hadn't responded yet. Fate just assumed that she was taking part in one of her lengthy cleanings. He had heard the tales of these extensive cleanups from his redheaded friend, Alma. Apparently they take a real long time to finish. Hopefully Fate would be awake by the time she comes back on. He needed to find something to occupy himself.

Fate could always clean his room, actually, but that takes a whole lot of effort, you know? There was soooo much stuff there! Under all of the clothes and such there was a small rug. Fate knew it was underneath the garbage in his room, but he completely forgotten what it looked like, and at this point he was too afraid to ask his father what color the carpet even was.

Speaking of his father, actually, Fate looked towards the clock on his computer and frowned. It was almost time for one of his weekly strifes with his father. Well, they never had a set time, but Fate had pretty much figured it out. He wasn't excited for it, either. He already knew that his father was going to serve him. Serve him like some dude on butler island, but it's not the classy kind of serving. These are WWE butlers and they're going to serve him up a smackdown sandwich with some pain to drink.

Well, it wasn't like there was anything he could do to stop the strifes. All he had to do now was wait, but what could he do while he waited?

=== Fate: Drink a soda.

Oh, yes, that's a good idea! Fate is so happy that he had that idea on his own, without any suggestion from an outside force.

The can of soda was in his modus, though, so he was hesitant to try and get it out. In the end, though, he pulled out a six sided dice from his pocket and rolled the dice. He was hoping for a six, but instead he got a three. A baseball suddenly materialized above his head and landed on the top of his head. "Ow...that didn't work."

Fate sighed and grabbed the dice once more. He shook the dice in his hand and dropped them down on the desk. The dice landed on a six and instead of a baseball falling on his head, a can of soda did instead. It was about to fall off of his head and onto the floor, but before that could happen Fate caught it in midair like some type of super cool ninja. He smiled and opened up the soda.

Agh! Fizz! Okay, he really should have waited before opening that soda. Now he had soda all over his clothes, making them all wet. He was going to get all sticky too. Ugh, this sucks...

=== Fate: Stop complaining and enjoy your soda.

Right, that's a good idea that he just had on his own. So, Fate decided to stop complaining and enjoying the wonderful soda that had fallen on his head and decided to eject its carbonated contents on you. It was kind of flat but...he didn't care. In his household, he learned not to complain. Money was short, and the both of them took what they could get.

While Fate chugged down the rest of his soda, the door to his room slammed open with a loud bang, causing him to drop his soda and spilling the rest of his contents all over him. Now he was really sticky! Super sticky, even! He was going to have a strife with his dad soon. He couldn't have a super sticky strife. Super sticky strifes scarcely succeed.

Fate's father didn't seem to care about his son's super sticky strife, however. Instead, he just stepped into the room, silent as ever, and pulled out his weapon of choice. ...it was his yo-yo. Oh jeez. His father didn't often use his yo-yo, which he was very proficient with, but he decided to do it today. Maybe he's just really angry.

=== Fate: Engage in strife with your father

Fate equipped his weapon from his specibus. It was nothing but a really pointy pen. Fate's only weapon was a pen, but he had a whole lotta pens, so he was armed! He had found the penkind specibus when he was walking down the street one day. He had decided to snag it because nobody was going to miss it. No one fights with a pen anyways. No one else but Fate is stupid enough to try it.

Fate knew that his father was going to kick him into next week, and if it wasn't literally it was definitely going to be physically. That yo-yo of his was a deadly weapon. Fate charged at his father, not exchanging any words, and tried to hit him in the leg, the easiest place to hit his father because he's so darn tall, but his father stepped back and hit him in the face with the yo-yo.

The teen took a step back and shook his head. That yo-yo hurts like...heck. Yeah, heck. Let's go with that. He didn't even want to think about those kind of words around his father. He was kind of strict, but...they had those nice moments together every once and awhile. ...this wasn't those nice moments.

Fate picked up a baseball that was on the floor and threw it at his father. He was a big wimp, though, and instead of doing any damage, it mostly served as a distraction, as Fate soon moved in for the attack and stabbed the man in the leg with his pen. It made contact, but...it's a pen. The guy didn't even react. That and this dude was in the military before. He's a tough guy.

Now, Fate wished he could say that the rest of the strife session was something even remotely resembling something cool, but no. His father had completely destroyed him. He was unrelenting, and in the end, his father picked him up and slammed him down onto his bed like he was a football player scoring a touchdown.

After such a humiliating defeat to the hands of his father, Fate just stared up at the ceiling as he heard his father place something on his computer desk and leave the room as if nothing happened. Fate continued to look up at the ceiling, though, not moving at all. He was done with all of this crap.

So done.

It was then that Fate heard his Pesterchum sounding a notification. One of his friends had messaged him. Probably the Canadian. Fate groaned and got up before navigating over to the computer.

TT: I have returned.

TT: So, you want to play the game I was talking about?

TT: You know, SBURB?

EE: SBURB, huh?

EE: I think my dad just gave me the discs

EE: After handing my butt to me on a silver platter.

TT: Oh, so you could say you got served?

EE: Yes, I got served. I got served a big plate of kick ass with a face full of yo-yo as an appetizer.

EE: and for dessert I got a nice helping of being spiked onto the bed.

EE: It was bad.

TT: Right, well, I'm sorry to hear that.

TT: But, about this game.

TT: You have the discs? Put them in and download the game.

TT: I already got Alma doing it, and I had gotten our other friends to agree to playing the game with us.

TT: Alma will connect to me, I connect to you once I'm in the game, you connect to one of our other friends of your choice, and it keeps going until one of our friends connects to Alma, finishing the circle.

EE: Sounds kind of confusing, but I'm in.

EE: Let me just put this in.

EE: So, you cleaned up your room, I'm guessing?

TT: Yes, my sister had decided to make a mess of the whole thing.

EE: Man, that sucks.

EE: Did you catch her doing it?

TT: No, and I'm honestly happy about that.

TT: She's dangerous with that vacuum of hers.

EE: Same with my dad and his yo-yo.

EE: He could beat anyone in a yo-yo-off.

TT: Yes, I'm sure he could.

TT: Who do you plan on connecting to, by the way?

EE: Probably SP

TT: Ah, alright. I actually like that person somewhat.

EE: Yeah, he's a pretty cool dude.

EE: Anyways goodbye.

TT: Goodbye. Talk to you later

 **exaggerate Efficiently (EE) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

=== Fate: Be Alma


	4. Booting up the game

=== Fate: Be Alma

Once again, this story is focusing on our lovely neighborhood redhead, Alma. Currently she was downloading the game, and it was taking a heck of a long time to download. It was kind of absurd, honestly. Due to the countless hours spent in video calls, Alma knew that her internet connection wasn't that bad, yet downloading all of the things this game had to offer took so long.

Right before she decided to get away from her computer to smoke a cigarette, her computer beeped at her to tell her she had a new notification on pesterchum. Oh, it was Echo. Alright. She can talk to someone now.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has begun pestering almandCream (AC)**

TT: Has your game finished downloading?

TT: I am getting excited here.

AC: i can totally feel the excitement here.

AC: you are so good at showing off your emotion

AC: oh my god i think i'm going to tear up

TT: I sense your sarcasm, and I don't think that is necessary at the moment.

AC: no its completely necessary.

TT: I just have a problem emoting. I don't see much of a problem with that.

AC: okay whatever.

AC: my game hasnt downloaded all the way yet though

AC: its at 92%

AC: it takes a long time to download

TT: Well, I've heard that it is a big game, so that would only make sense.

TT: Just be patient.

AC: how long do you think this game is going to be anyways?

AC: it doesnt look like itd last that long from what ive looked up

TT: Oh, you actually looked up the game? I am impressed.

AC: yeah i actually looked it up

AC: hold your applause i know

AC: i did some research for once

AC: whats next? what other miracle is going to happen.

TT: Perhaps it involves clowns?

AC: ...what?

TT: Clowns are pretty miraculous, you know.

AC: uh right whatever.

AC: oh the games done downloading.

AC: im going to connect to you.

TT: Okay.

Alma decided to look around the main menu first before trying to connect to her Canadian friend. It was weird, honestly, and the user interface of just the main menu was a bit confusing to navigate. It looked like a few of the menu options were even...blinking in and out. This game definitely needed a patch.

Alma shook her head and connected to her friend, actually looking into...what looked like her room. Oh, wow, okay. That explains the realistic graphics. ...was she supposed to have cameras in her room or something? She didn't get any of that stuff.

AC: okay im connected to you and…

AC: wow i can actually see you inside your room

AC: its still as clean as ever

TT: Yes, of course it is.

TT: Just focus on playing the game, please?

AC: no need to be so pushy.

AC: fine ill just put down some what i can.

Okay, let's see. What could she put down? ...what the heck was a Cruxtruder? Eh. Whatever. She's going to put it down. Totem Lathe? Yup. That's going down as well. Alchemiter? Sounds stupid. Going to put that down, too. Where was she going to put them? Just about anywhere.

TT: Did you just put these objects down wherever they could fit?

TT: Not only does it look cluttered in here now, but there is barely any room in my room.

TT: And rooms are supposed to have room.

TT: Hence the name, room.

AC: hey just be happy that i put them down

AC: you have any idea how to use this stuff?

TT: Not at all.

TT: I guess I will have to figure it out.

AC: yeah you do that.

AC: ill keep looking around here or something

=== Alma: Be Echo.

Considering Alma is not interesting for us now, we will be moving back to Echo and going through her first time starting the game. Echo sighed and looked at all the items Alma had set down. She could have at least taken them out of her room, you know? Not just stuck in place. Now everything was so cramped...oh well.

Echo shrugged and got away from her computer before moving around her room to try and find a way to use all of these machines. While she was walking around, she looked out the window and noticed a familiar person coming towards her house, skipping along through the blizzard in little protective wear.

It was Hope, and she wasn't wearing a lot of warm clothing. It was what looked like a spring jacket, pink mittens and a hat, and snow boots. Echo was unsure how Hope wasn't freezing to death, but she decided to accept the fact. Hope was a mystery, and a mystery she had no time for. Hopefully she was just going out on a walk.

Echo had asked Hope if she wanted to play the game with her, but Hope said that she didn't have a computer to play the game on. Echo was...somewhat surprised, actually. Echo managed to have gotten a computer. She thought that Hope would get a computer somehow. She had her ways, and a lot of things seem to go her way, so it was a surprise.

==== Echo: Examine devices

Right, that was a good idea. So, Echo walked over towards the Cruxtruder first. She didn't find many things to note about the machine. There was a small valve that she could turn, but when she tried to turn the valve the piece of machinery didn't budge. She had no idea what the machine did, but she'd just have to figure that out later.

Echo then moved over to the totem lathe and ran her hand across the odd looking machine. Okay, the first machine was weird, but this was even weirder. She had absolutely no idea what this did, but she assumed those vices on the machine had a big part in it's function.

Echo didn't spend a long time examining the machine, though, and moved over to the alchemiter. This just looked like some type of platform, honestly. It looked important, though. More so than the other one, at least. The platform-like appearance really made it feel like some grand weapon would appear on it.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. Echo assumed that was Hope, and was about to go and answer the door, but then her computer beeped at her. Oh, Alma was messaging her. Great...

AC: is your sister out of the house?

TT: Last time I checked, she was in the household.

AC: well i cant find her

AC: maybe she left?

TT: Can you look outside?

AC: yeah

TT: Is the boat gone?

AC: no

TT: Then she's just hiding somewhere.

TT: Don't worry, she's here somewhere. Just figure out what we're supposed to do.

AC: eh alright.

AC: you mess around with the machines then.

TT: I will do that, thank you.

TT: And I have to answer the door. Someone's here.

AC: yeah i know you go do that

AC: oh also take this

Before Echo could ask what she was supposed to take, a card suddenly floated in front of her face. She moved her head back to increase the distance from her and the card. After staring at the card for a few moments, she took it from the air and examined it.

It looked like a basic captchalogue card, but it had many holes in it in seemingly random places. The holes made it hard to tell what the card stored. Was that an magnifying glass or something else? She couldn't tell…

Well, it doesn't matter for now. She could figure out all of this stuff later. She needed to go answer the door. Echo slid the card into her pocket, deciding not to captchalogue it, and then hopped out of her chair and headed towards the front door.

=== Echo: Answer the door

Ahem. She was already going to do that, thank you very much. She doesn't need any orders from you. She knows exactly what she's doing and has to do.

Echo walked to the front door and opened the door to her house. Like she expected, Hope was standing there, a big smile on her face and her black hair covering part of her eyes. As soon as the door opened, Hope tackled Echo in a hug.

"Hey best friend!" Hope said before letting go of the other girl. "I was just taking a walk and decided to stop by. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Echo said before turning around and beginning to walk to her room. "I'm just playing that game SBURB. You know, the one game I wanted you to play?"

"Oh, you're playing it? Awesome! Also, sorry that I can't play it. I just don't have a laptop to play it on. You understand, right?"

"Yes, I understand, but I still find it odd that you don't have a computer." Echo turned to face her friend, standing in the doorway to her bedroom. "But what I don't understand is how you haven't managed to-"

Echo was suddenly interrupted by a loud crack followed by a thud. The floor shook slightly and Echo's eyes widened slightly from the sudden noise. Hope, though, didn't seem phased, and instead gestured to inside the girl's room.

Echo turned around and looked into her room to find that her bed was now in two pieces, and on the floor. The Cruxtruder had opened and out popped a light blue dowell, along with a glowing ball of the same color.

The Canadian frowned and made her way to the computer, ignoring the flashing ball as she began to type to Alma. She had some explaining to do.

TT: Can you tell me why my bed's broken?

TT: and on the floor?

AC: i needed to open that machine and this guide said dropping something heavy on it would do it

TT: Or you could have used something like a crowbar.

AC: and do you have a crowbar?

TT: I must admit that I don't.

AC: exactly.

AC: now the guide says you need to toss something at that one glowing thing

AC: the seizure ball

TT: You want me to throw something at it? Fine, sure.

Echo would be very angry right now if she had an easy access to emotion, but she never got angry easily. That was Alma. Instead, Echo took everything in stride and looked for something to throw at this "Seizure ball".

Echo looked around her room for a minute or two before deciding to grab a small replica of a human skull. She had ordered it online because the description on ebay said that it came with a model of the human brain. When it came to her house, though, it was confirmed that was a lie. Now she just used it as a paper weight.

The teenager adjusted her glasses and turned to the flashing ball of...whatever this thing was made out of. Her eyes squinted slightly due to the flashing light. Echo looked down at the floor and tossed the skull at the ball.

There was a bright flash of light blue and Echo heard Hope let out a "Woah" when the flash subsided. Echo looked up and noticed that the ball had changed. Instead of a light blue flashing ball, it was now a light blue flashing skull. Well...that was interesting.

As soon as Echo made eye contact with the ball, it started letting out random noises that Echo could only assume was the skull attempting to communicate with her. It definitely wasn't English, though. The skull was made in China, though, so maybe it was speaking Chinese or something?

=== Echo: Captchalogue dowel

Oh, actually, Echo wasn't planning on doing that, but that's a good idea. Echo grabbed the dowel and captchalogued it. She was about to examine the other machines, just to see where she could put the dowel, but before she took a step her modus beeped at her. Oh, she had forgotten to put in a password. Echo sighed and pulled out the card storing the dowel before looking at Hope, who hadn't left the doorway.

"What's a good password for this dowel?" She asked. She was awful at coming up with passwords. It was one of the flaws that her mind had. She never came up with good passwords, and they were always easy to guess.

"Oh, ummmm...what about Creation? Maybe have the number one replace the I?" Hope shrugged.

"I probably won't be storing it for long, so I'll just use that," Echo said before putting the password in. There was a few moments of just staring at a spinning circle before a green checkmark appeared on the card. It was an acceptable password. Good. Now it's time to see what this thing does...

Echo then looked around her room and at all of the machines. At first she went to the Alchemiter, but she soon realized she had no idea what to do with this thing. It didn't look like a dowel could be put anywhere on this thing besides the big pedestal, but putting it there did nothing. The Cruxtruder wasn't going to be useful either. It was now just expelling more dowels. By now three of them had come out of the machine and had fallen out of the floor. Those may be useful for later if this thing breaks...

Echo then approached the Totem Lathe and stared at the part of the machine that looked like a vice. Suddenly, like a light bulb going off, she got an idea of what to do. Just put the dowel in the vice and...you can work from there.

So, Echo pushed the dowel in between the vice pieces and stared at the machine for a few moments. She ran her hand along the device to see if there were any buttons, but all she found was a slot, just big enough to fit a card.

Echo remembered the card with the holes in it that Alma had given her. She slid the card out of her pocket and stared at it for a few moments before putting it into the machine. When she that, two drills came out of the Totem Lathe and began to carve into the dowel, changing it's shape.

Once the machine finished, the Canadian grabbed the dowel and managed to pry it out of the vice. She stared at the new shape for a few moments before putting it in her modus, giving it the same password that she did before the dowel was carved. Once again, her modus accepted it. Echo looked at the other two machines. SHe needed to figure out what to do with this carved dowel.

...she also needed a phone. Pretty badly, because Alma began messaging her one again, and now she has to go back to her computer and squeeze past all of the machines.

AC: wow youre figuring this all out on your own?

AC: thats pretty impressive

TT: Well, you know that I am rather intelligent.

TT: And it is by now a matter of process of elimination.

TT: I would have figured it out eventually.

AC: yeah yeah sure.

AC: so figure out what to do with that thing

TT: I was about to do that, but then you messaged me.

AC: well excuse me

AC id leave but i want to tell you something

TT: Hmm? What is it?

AC: well, im not sure if im just seeing this but theres a meteor heading towards your house

TT: Excuse me?

AC: take a look outside

Well, that was an odd thing for her to say, and almost difficult to believe, but instead of just brushing it off, Echo decided to look out the window. Alma wasn't the type to lie, and she especially didn't lie to Echo, so she believed her.

When Echo looked out the window, she soon figured out that Alma was correct. Past all of the falling snow, Echo could see the meteor falling from the sky and towards her house. It was a big, fiery ball in the sky. It was enough to leave Echo unsettled, and she realized she needed to hurry up and figure out what to do.

"You okay there, Echo?" Hope asked, but Echo simply ignored her. She pulled out the card that stored the carve dowel and quickly inserted her password. The carved dowel appeared in her hands and she looked towards the alchemiter. The only machine that has yet been used. This had to be what she needed to do.

Echo rushed past Hope, who had walked over to her to see what was going on. Echo heard her gasp a second later, so she assumed Hope looked out the window. The skull followed her with his gaze as she moved to the Alchemiter, still spouting out it's same gibberish, which Echo also ignored. She had no time for this.

This time, when Echo approached the Alchemiter, a smaller pedestal popped out of the machine. It didn't take long for Echo to figure out what to do. She put the dowel on the pedestal and waited to see what would happen. A tool came out of the machine and appeared to scan the dowel for a few moments before going back in the machine. Suddenly, like when Echo threw the skull at the flashing ball, there was a light blue flash of light.

When Echo's eyes adjusted to the light appearing and disappearing, she noticed that there was something laying on the main pedestal of the machine. Echo quickly hopped onto the Alchemiter and grabbed the item before examining it.

It was a magnifying glass, and it was also a light blue color, like the dowels and the ball. Echo spun it around in her hands and notice that it worked perfectly. She had no idea what to do with it, though. Perhaps there was something on the machines she needed to find? But she didn't have enough time to find anything! There was a meteor heading to her house!

Echo then noticed that there was another light blue item on the pedestal with her. She picked it up and examined it. It was a small piece of paper with tiny words on it. It was far too difficult to read, even with her glasses. Thankfully, Echo had a magnifying glass on her, so she held it up to the paper to read the words.

"Break the glass, and the Mage will be saved," Echo read aloud before tilting her head slightly. Break the glass? The magnifying glass, maybe? She didn't have much to break it with, though. Well...she had her broom. ...right, her broom! She could use her broom!

As Echo pulled her broom out of her specibus, she heard footsteps running down the hallway. Echo wasn't sure if that was Hope or her sister, but she wasn't going to check now. She heard her computer beeping at her to tell her of messages she received, and she heard the garbled language of the skull as it continued to stare at her. It was enough to overwhelm her sense of hearing, but she didn't let it bother her.

Echo looked at the magnifying glass for only a moment before throwing it to the ground as hard as she could. Using both hands, she spun the broom around so that the handle face the magnifying glass. Putting all of her strength behind this one move, she slammed her broom down against the magnifying glass. It had the desired effect and it broke.

The results were almost immediate. As Echo was about to put away her broom, there was a sudden flash of light blue that enveloped the entire building, and most of her island. When the light faded away, her house, and most of the island, was gone. A few seconds later, a meteor came crashing down to where her house was just a few moments ago.

=== Echo: be SP


	5. serialProsecuter

A boy sat in his room, sitting on the chair next to his desk and waiting for the noise of a wild party downstairs to die down. It was one of his father's wild parties, but he never honestly cared for them. It just made a huge mess of the house and he'd have to help whoever dad hired to clean up the mess afterwards. Before we keep going on about this child, what is his name?

GALE DEVROH

The boy's name is Gale Devroh, and with a groan, he began to look around his room. There wasn't much to see here. There were a few posters of some crime shows or movies, as well as police officers. On a small shelf, beside a few books that he kept for reading material, was a picture of him with his soccer team, holding some trophy. That was a fun game, but it was a while ago.

Gale always admired police officers, or anyone that laid down the law such as sheriffs or judges or such. He definitely wants to be like them, which is why he has a pair of handcuffs that he owns. They're toy handcuffs, though. You don't need a key for them or anything, but you can still handcuff someone with them. Though, he's never found a chance to actually do something such as that.

Gale then focused on the music that he heard booming from downstairs. Yes, it was another one of his dad's wild parties. That was something he couldn't doubt. It'd been going on for an hour now, and Gale was wondering when it would end. It's five in the afternoon. It's not time to party, but...whatever.

Gale was about to look up some Youtube videos to get his mind off of everything, but before he coudl find a video he wanted, one of his friends messaged him. Oh, it's Fate. Cool.

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has begun pestering serialProsecuter (SP)**

EE: Hey, dude, how's it going?

SP: Oh, hello.

SP: It's going fine, what about you?

EE: Eh, I got my butt handed to me by my dad

EE: Then he just kinda dropped off a game at my desk?

EE: Like "it was fun beating you to a pulp. Here's sburb."

SP: SBURB is in all caps, by the way.

EE: I don't care.

EE: What does it even stand for?

EE: like...i'd come up with an acronym, but I can't think of anything good.

SP: I can't think of anything either.

SP: Also, would you rather do a video chat?

EE: I don't really care.

EE: Do you want to?

SP: I prefer face to face interaction rather than just reading text

SP: so yes, I do.

EE: Alright, let's do it.

Gale led his cursor over to the call button and clicked on it. He quickly grabbed his headset, but before putting it on, he decided to adjust his hair a bit, which was a bit of a mess, or at least that's what he thought. Before he could fix his hair, though, Fate had already accepted the call.

"You fixing yourself up for me?" the black haired boy asked with a grin, resting his elbow against the surface of his desk and resting his head on his hand. "Didn't know you cared so much."

Gale chuckled, which ended just about as soon as it started, and shook his head. "My hair's just a bit messy, that's all," he said as he then put on his headset and connected it to his computer. "Wanted to fix it up a bit."

"Oh, come on, you're hair looks fine," the boy said, his grin turning into a smile as he then chuckled. "My hair's the one that's messy. I have constant bedhead, dude."

"Well, that is true," Gale said as he looked at the chat they had moments ago. "So, you said you had that SBURB game, huh? I actually asked by dad to get that for me. He said he'd give it to me today."

Fate nodded. "Isn't your dad partying right now, though?" he asked. "I can hear that music, and you've talked about your dad's parties a lot, so I know he likes to do that. What makes you think he'll actually give you the game?"

Gale shrugged. "Well, I know my dad likes to party a lot, but even then, he does keep his word, and he's never late, either. I told him to give it to me at fifteen-hundred."

"Fifteen-hundred?"

"You know, three o'clock. He'll be giving it to me at three o'clock." Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard to understand…

"Oh, you use that twenty-four hour stuff." Fate then removed his head from his hand and stretched before putting both hands behind his head. "So he should be giving it to you soon, right? You're in the same timezone as me?"

"As you and Alma, yes," the boy responded, glancing over at the door. Actually, it'd only be a minute or two now… "I live in Rhode Island, so yes, same time zone."

"Oh, dude, you're all the way in Rhode Island?" Fate asked, his smile turning into a frown. "Dude, all of our friends are so far away. That's so unfair. The person who's the closest to me is...I think Phil."

Gale made a face. "Don't mention him, please. I can't stand him." He shook his head. "But yeah, we're pretty far away, and Echo's all the way in Canada, and she doesn't even know the name of her island, so I can't look it up. I don't think we'd ever get the chance to meet up in real life."

"Ah, dude, you're making me upset." Though usually he said these things as jokes, he did actually look upset, "You guys are, like, my only friends. Being able to meet you guys would be awesome."

Gale nodded. "I'm sure it would be," he said before glancing at the clock. "Give me a moment."

The child looked to his room door. As the clock reached three o'clock, his dad opened up the door, the removal of the wooden barrier making the music from downstairs louder. He was wearing some red, star shaped sunglasses and some multicolored party hat. He had two game cases in his hands and he tossed them towards Gale. He caught the two discs and nodded. "Thanks."

The dad nodded and then closed the door, his son turning back to the computer. "Okay, I got the games," he said as he opened up the case. Right, he'll try to install them later. "Well, now I have my discs. I can play the game now."

"Woah, okay, that was pretty cool," Fate commented. "Like, you just caught them, dude. I'd never be able to do that. Like, my dad would throw them at me and then I'd get hit in the face with them, and then he'd hit me with a yo-yo or dump soda on me or something."

"Is that why you're clothes are wet? Or did you just decide to take a bath in fizzy drinks?"

"Haha, very funny. But seriously, my dad kind of did that to me. I don't think he meant to, though. I think he just meant to bust my door down, this is just a side effect." The boy shrugged. "Anyways, so Alma and Echo had the idea to play this with all of our friends, so I was thinking that you could go connect to one of our friends."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Want me to connect to MD?" Gale clicked his mouse over the contact information and began typing. "I can message her right now, if you want."

"No, dude, I don't think you connecting to MD would be a good idea." Fate scratched the back of his head. "I was kind of hoping that you'd...connect to Phil."

"Phil?" Gale frowned. Fate knew he didn't like that guy. Why would he make him do this? "Why do I have to connect to that insufferable idiot?"

"Because MD is a pushover and you know it. Phil would be able to stomp all over her and make her do whatever he wants. Echo's already going to connect to me, so she can't do it, and I don't want to deal with him, which is why I'm connecting to you. Besides, you seem to be the only one that can kind of control him."

Gale let out a chuckle that had no real humor behind it and shook his head. "Really? Because I can't see this apparent control I have over him."

"Well, you may not see it, but it's definitely there." Fate squeezed out some soda from his shirt, causing it to drip over the floor. Hopefully he'll clean that up later, otherwise his floor is going to be sticky. "Anyways, are you in or not."

Gale thought about it for a few moments before nodding. "Yeah, i'm in," he said. "I just hope that Phil doesn't ruin the game for me. I want to actually have fun."

"Oh, I don't think he'd ruin the whole thing for you," he said with a wave of his hand. "Anyways, you should get to downloading those discs."

Gale nodded. "Right, I'll do that." He opened up his disc tray and put the disc in the rom before closing it. "I think I'm going to hang up now. The download will probably be faster if the call's not going."

Fate nodded. "Right, well, see ya in the game," he said with a wave. Hopefully this will go well and they can have fun.

Gale nodded. "Alright, goodbye." He then hung up the call and then began the download of the discs. This was going to be...interesting. Gale rested his head against his hands as he watched the progress bar slowly fill up, the music from downstairs filling his ears.

=== Gale: Be Phil

((hey, so, author note here. To those who are reading, would you be so kind as to leave a comment on what you think about the third person writing? I want some feedback to know that the reading audience is content with this. Thank you in advance!))


	6. patriotRequiem

A boy stood in his room, sitting on his bed and typing on his computer. He was typing up some stupid argument with some troll that decided to annoy him online. He was going to give this guy a piece of his mind! In the background, some country music was playing, accompanying by the angry tapping the boy made against his keyboard. What was this boy's name?

"PHI JEFFERS"

HIs name is Phil Jeffers, and this boy is one of the most patriotic people you'd ever meet. At a young age he developed a love for his country, which was probably due to his surroundings in the south of the U.S.A. His room has been filled with American pride posters ever since he found the liking towards his country that he kept inside of him. He had posters of American flags and eagles and all that.

As Phil clicked the send button for his reply, he suddenly got a notification. Who was this from? Oh, it's from MD. Well, time to see what this was all about.

medicalDirectory (MD) began pestering patriotRequiem (PR)

MD: hey phill!

MD: how are you?

PR: my name has one l in it you know?

PR: not phill, but phil

PR: y'all keep gettin' my name wrong.

MD: oh!

MD: i am so sorry!

MD: i just always think it has two l's because thats the spelling i usually see

MD: ill try to correct myself when i can

MD: i didnt make you upset did i?

PR: no im fine

PR: why did you want to message me?

PR: did you want to tell me something weird that happened on that ol' island of yours?

PR: where is that place anyway?

MD: oh no i wanted to ask you something actually.

MD: and its in the caribbean

PR: ...so youre not really american?

MD: well i am

MD: its in the virgin isles

PR: like i said, not american.

MD: hey were a part of america!

PR: no y'all just want to think you are

PR: anyways what did you want to ask?

MD: oh right!

MD: have you been able to talk to alma recently?

PR: alma?

PR: cant say i have why do you ask?

MD: because i tried talking to her earlier but she didnt respond.

MD: when i kept messaging her she eventually responded with

MD: "IM BUSY GO AWAY!"

MD: i was wondering if you got that too.

PR: oh wow she must be mad

PR: think its that time of the month?

MD: phil!

MD: thats not something you should say!

PR: what? thats what makes a girl mad right?

PR: you have those dont you?

MD: thats personal information!

MD: im just...going to leave before this gets any wierder

MD: bye

PR: yeah see ya

medicalDirectory (MD) had ceased pestering patriotRequiem (PR)

Phil shook his head and then looked to his radio. Weird girl doesn't want to talk about bodily functions. She never understood her, to be honest. She's just so weird...but she's a total pushover as well. He tried to get her to be more confident in herself, but that...isn't working. She still does whatever he tells her to do, which is actually something he doesn't want to happen.

Phil then decided that he wanted some orange juice. Luckily enough for him, he had already captchlogued some orange juice earlier, so he wouldn't have to go downstairs and interrupt his mother's date. She brings a new guy in every week. It never works out, but she keeps trying. He never understood that, and he never tried to.

Once the boy tried to bring out the orange juice box, a target appeared at the other end of hi room due to the type of modus he has. A target modus. Whenever he tries to bring something out, a target appears and he has to shoot it. He pulled out his pistol and, barely taking time to aim, shot the target. It disappeared and soon afterwards a box of orange juice appeared next to him on his bed. He grabbed the box, poked the straw into it and took a sip. Ah, tasty!

As Phil decided he was going to go on some forums, probably just some forum for political arguments, he got another message from a friend. Oh, what the hell? Can't he enjoy his orange juice and debate politics in peace? Oh, and it's Gale. That makes it even better.

serialProsecutor (SP) has begun pestering patriotRequiem (PR)

SP: Okay, lets just make things clear here

SP: You don't like me, and I don't like you.

SP: But due to some stupid idea that Fate had, that wouldn't even work, may I add, we have to play a game together, and I'd have to host that game.

PR: what the hell're you talkin' about?

PR: what game?

SP: Oh, of course you haven't heard of it.

SP: It's a game called SBURB

SP: And Echo got this wonderful idea that we should all play together.

SP: Now I'm forced to connect to you

PR: and who said i even wanted to play this game?

PR: what if i don't want to?

PR: wouldn't that ruin your plans?

SP: Not my plans.

SP: Echo's plans.

PR: well then itd ruin that communists plans

SP: She's not a communist and you know it. Not all Canadians are communist.

PR: that's exactly what a communist would say!

SP: You're impossible.

SP: Fine, don't play the game. I don't even care.

PR: oh now you dont want me to?

PR: you know what i think i will play it then.

PR: how do you like that?

SP: Like I said, I don't care.

SP: Do whatever you want, but just know that I won't be warning you when I host the game or anything.

SP: And you have to connect with MD

PR: eh alright i dont mind that girl all that much

SP: Yeah, okay, whatever. Bye.

PR: goodbye.

serialProsecutor (SP) has ceased pestering patriotRequiem (PR)

Man, you really hate that guy. Well, really, it was nothing personal or anything. Not like you met the guy in real life, but he just seems like a major buzzkill. That and he's really strict on those rules he tries to enforce on everyone. The kid needs to learn to lighten up. He's a thirteen year old boy, not some police officer.

A game called SBURB, huh? Well, he doesn't have the game at the moment, but there's nothing a little website called Amazon can't solve. Or just google in general. The internet was awesome. You can get tons of stuff on there. So, with a quick search of the game and what it was about, he decided to order it on Amazon. It was surprisingly cheap. He put in the number of his mother's credit card and the game's all his!

Speaking of his mother, he heard some door slam downstairs. It wasn't that hard to hear, honestly. Phil was surprised that the door didn't break, actually, considering how many times his mother slammed the door shut as she entered the house. Her date must have went badly, like all the other ones she's been on in the past month or two. Phil couldn't help but wonder how badly this date went now. His mother seemed to have pretty rotten luck with dates.

Phil sighed and then closed his laptop. Depending on how bad the date went, what followed next was one of four possible outcomes. One involved alcohol, one involved tears, one involved a little bit of both, or she could take it just fine. Phil wanted to be down there in case it was the second outcome, though. Didn't want her to have a breakdown. She did that once or twice. So, he hopped off his bed, took a few more sips of his orange juice, and walked out of his room. The real question was how long was this going to take...

=== Phil Be Echo.


	7. Skullmansprite

Echo, who was now sitting against her wall, groaned as she stood up and looked around. Her laptop, which somehow survived all of the madness of getting into the game, was making a lot of notification sounds, sounding off messages from a certain girl named Alma. She let out a groan and then slowly stood up, putting her hand against the wall for support, the other hand going to her head. Ugh, her head hurt…

Slowly, the girl walked over to her computer and looked at the messages Alma sent her. How many of those did she send? This girl needs to know how to calm down. Might as well respond to her, otherwise she's just going to get angry.

AC: woah okay what happened?

AC: like you just broke something and...something happened

AC: i dont even know

AC: you okay?

AC: ...echo?

AC: okay youre kind of making me nervous

AC: youre just kind of...against the wall just sitting there

AC: seriously are you okay?

AC: echo just wake up dammit!

AC: i will drop something heavy on your head!

AC: i will do it!

TT: You realize that messaging me while I'm unconscious isn't an effective way of communicating with me, correct?

AC: oh my god i dont have time for your smartass comments!

AC: what happened!?

TT: I think I passed out.

TT: And now I have a headache. This computer screen isn't helping much either.

AC: well too bad youre talking to me

AC: a meteor hit your house dude!

AC: you should be lucky youre not dead!

TT: Well, yes, I should be happy about that, but I honestly don't know what happened.

TT: I broke a magnifying glass and then suddenly I was passed out.

AC: right.

AC: hey whats it like outside?

TT: I don't know. Why haven't you checked?

AC: because i was too busy worrying about you!

TT: Well, it's good to know that you care, Alma.

AC: screw you

TT: See? You care.

AC: just be quiet and check outside before i drop your bed on you.

TT: Fine, I'll go do that.

Echo walked away from her computer and went into the kitchen. She'd get a better view of the outside world from that window. As she walked through the house, she noticed that the entire house looked like a mess. A table was completely upside down, and some chairs were on their sides. It was hard to tell if this was due to the impact of the meteor, or because of her sister, who was probably running around like a crazy person as the meteor hurtled towards the house.

Echo stepped into the kitchen and stared out the window. She was almost blinded by the sun, which was shining straight into her window at the moment. She covered her eyes and tried to take a better look outside. It looked...pretty basic, to be honest, though what she saw was still surprising. The house, which was nothing more than a shack, really, was no longer on an island, but in some field. There was some grass and flowers growing, but other than that the only other thing that caught her attention was a few buildings off in the distance. She was going to have to check that out.

Well, now that she figured out where the shack was, she turned around to walk back to her room, but before she could leave the kitchen, she could hear something bang at her door. She shook her head and then walked over to the door. She grabbed the doorknob, turned it and opened the door.

What she found was multiple creatures that...did not look friendly. Compared to Echo, they went up to her chest, so they weren't tall by any means, and they were completely black. One interesting thing to note was that their heads were just black skulls, the two jaw bones going up and down as if to say something. Once she opened the door, those two creatures barged inside, pushing her off to the side.

Echo stumbled and caught herself on the counter next to the sink. She shook her head and looked back at the two imp-like creatures. Already her trusty weapon, which was of course her broom, appeared in her hand. This may be needed in case things went bad…

The two imps looked around the house before focusing on Echo. One of them seemed to hiss before pouncing at her. Echo bought her broom up and hit the monster on the top of the head with it, causing the monster to drop straight to the floor. They didn't seem terribly strong, luckily enough.

Echo then made a sweeping motion with her broom. No, not sweeping like with a broom, but with a sword. She's using it like a sword. Deal with it. She managed to hit both of them and they stumble backwards. Unfortunately, a broom isn't a very good weapon when you just hit them with the thistles. So, she spun the broom around in her hands and smacked them with the handle, now using it more like a spear instead of a sword.

After a good minute or two of fighting these imps, which involved aggressive poking from Echo and scratching from the imps, they eventually just...disappeared, a few items dropping as they did. Echo walked over to these items and was about to pick them up, but they disappeared before she could make physical contact with them. Echo shrugged and, after pushing her glasses up her face, walked back to her room. Right...that just happened.

Echo entered her room and walked back over to the computer. Time to message Alma about this…

TT: Well, I just killed a couple monsters.

TT: It was honestly somewhat easy.

AC: dude i saw that!

AC: it was awesome!

AC: but where are you?

TT: I am honestly not sure. The house is in some sort of field, and there are a few houses nearby. I'm hoping there's someone I can talk to there.

AC: right, okay.

AC: but dude theres monsters around or something

AC: you need to get some better weapons.

AC: a knife or something

TT: I can only use brooms, though, I thought you knew that.

AC: whyd you pick a broom for your strifekind?

AC: how much damage do you expect to do with a broom?

TT: I'm sorry. It's not every day I have to fight with a broom

TT: Usually it's only with my sister on occasion.

AC: right whatever

AC: just try to get some better weapons somehow

TT: That would be the smart move, I suppose.

AC: right.

AC: also i put something else down

AC: its in your kitchen.

Echo frowned a bit and then walked back into the kitchen. Finding some...machine in the room. It was the Punch Designix, but Echo obviously didn't know it was called this. She saw a little slot that looked to be for a card, so she did what any sane person would do, and insert the card for her only weapon into the hole. A noise came from the machine and she pulled her card out, finding that a bunch of holes were now punched into the card.

Suddenly, Echo had an idea. She walked over to the drawers in the kitchen and began looking through them. Right, where are the knives? She never kept track of those things. Uh...no, those, which may work too, but...knives. Ah! Here they are!

Echo captcahlogued one of knives, inserted the password "synopsis" and then walked over to the new machine. She put in her new knife card and, once it got punched, she pulled the card back out and walked back to her room. Grabbing one of the extra dowels the Cruxtruder made, she walked to the totem lathe. Put the dowel here, and let's see if these two cards fit…

Sure enough, the two cards fit, and the machine started to carve the dowel. Once that was finished, she grabbed the dowel and walked towards the Alchemiter. Right, put this here, let the machine scan it, and let's see what happens.

The tool went back into the Alchemiter and, after a few moments, something looking like a broom appeared on the platform. Let's see what it made. She hopped onto the platform and then walked to the newly created object. What she found was what looked like a normal broom, but now instead of a bunch of thistles at the end of it, now there were knives. Small knives, but they were still knives. This was some dangerous weapon.

So, of course, Echo picked it up and examined it some more. This was...actually rather fascinating. She had to wonder how it was able to do that….hopefully she can figure that out later. She spun the broom around in her hands, which was a rather dangerous idea, and then put it in her strife specibus. Hmm...what else could she do with this.

=== Echo: Alchemize your glasses and desktop computer.

Echo did just that, and, after a while of fumbling around without her glasses, she was able to put the dowel onto the alchemiter. She quickly crawled onto the platform and picked up the newly created device. Her very own pair of computer glasses. It was actually pretty cool. All she had to do was put this on and she could do anything she could have done on her computer. Time to message Alma. ...oh, she only had to think about what she wanted to type.

TT: I made two items.

TT: I think I'm going to make more.

AC: oh wow okay thats actually pretty cool

AC: this game is awesome!

AC: but yeah make some more stuff

AC: it costs grist apparently though

AC: i think you get that by killing the imps?

AC: i dont know.

TT: I'll figure that out later.

TT: Give me a moment. I need to figure out what else I can do.

AC: okay have fun.

=== Echo: Alchemize boxing gloves with broom.

Echo was honestly pretty happy that her sister's room had some boxing gloves in it. Luckily, she had fistkind to as her specibus, so she had a few fighting gloves for Echo to choose. She quickly grabbed one and then rushed to the Alchemiter.

After going through the process of punching cards, Echo put the newly carved Cruxite dowel into the machine, and out came her new Broom Gloves. She quickly captchalogued them. Honestly, they didn't look very useful. They were boxing gloves with little green thistles on the end of them. She should have thought this over before she wasted a dowel and some grist. Though, honestly, it wasn't like the dowels were a limited resource. It seemed like the Cruxtruder was just spitting them out like a broken vending machine with candy.

=== Echo: Go on an Alchemize spree

Well, honestly, Echo couldn't think of much that could prove to be useful, but she was still going to try. So, what happens if she combined some clothes with other items? A shirt being combined with a diagram of the human brain proved to have some...somewhat expected results, actually. It made a shirt with the diagram of the human brain, the parts of the brain being colored different, and what they were used for also being stated on the shirt. It didn't cost much Grist, luckily.

Alchemizing some more items, Echo decided to try and use some of her psychology books. So, grabbing two or three of her books, she jammed them into the totem lathe and then put the dowel in the Alchemiter. What it made was some huge book titled "Psychology for the Intellectually gifted". It looked pretty heavy, and luckily Echo could captchalogue it. It may be good reading material once she finishes the game.

After all the alchemizing was done, the girl adjusted her glasses and stared at the skull sprite, which she had almost forgot about, honestly. It was running through her house, yelling out some random gibberish Echo didn't understand. She shook her head. That thing should just be quiet...maybe she could throw something else at it? It was worth a shot…

So, Echo looked around for anything else that could be thrown into the sprite. Honestly, she was looking for something that wouldn't be useful. She didn't want to throw anything important into the sprite. She might need it later. Eventually, though, she just grabbed one of her sister's miniature snowmen and tossed it into the sprite.

The result...she didn't even know how to describe it, to be honest. It looked like skull wearing a tophat, having a carrot nose and some coal where it's eyes were supposed to be. It also grew a ghostly tail. It was like some dead, demented Frosty the Snowman. It didn't look like a jolly happy soul.

"Hello!" The Skullmansprite shouted. "You're the player, right? I shall be your guide through here!"

Echo frowned a small bit and took a step back. This thing was going to be her guide? Uh...she wasn't sure if she should consider herself lucky or not. "So, you're my guide, and...you're...what even are you?" She was almost at a lost for words, which was impressive.

"I'm a sprite, of course!" The skull spun in a circle, it's tophat threatening to fall off, but it magically corrected itself. Wait, not magically. Magic isn't real. It's stupid. "You were the one that prototyped me. You should know this."

"This is my first time playing the game. How was I supposed to know?" Echo turned her back to the sprite and walked towards the door, shaking her head. Right, now she has jolly ol' Skully the Skullman following her around. Just what she wanted. "Anyways, what am I supposed to do?"

"I'll tell you that once you get out of your house," the skull responded, the pieces of coal moving around in it's eye sockets as it moved. Echo honestly expected them to fall out eventually. "Let's get going!"

Echo nodded and then walked to the front door of her house, which was still open due to the imps charging in. She never got a chance to close the door. She then stepped outside, being temporarily blinded by the sun. It was also decently warm outside, which she wasn't used to. She sighed and looked around. It was grass as far as the eye could see, with very few signs of civilization. This game was going to take a while...

=== Echo: Be MD


	8. medicalDirectory's Medical Nonsense

A young girl stands in her room, sitting on her computer and typing away, one key at a time. She was never able to type very quickly, unfortunately, so she just resorted to pecking at the keyboard with her index fingers. It was a long process, but it was the only way she could type without making a bunch of mistakes. Before we continue, we must figure out this girl's name.

"Lala Clanson"

The girl's name is Lala Clanson, and like stated before, she is currently just typing away on her computer, in her room, which is in her house, on an island in the Caribbean. It's pretty nice most of the time, which is why Lala often finds herself going outside to play. Normally by herself, considering she has a hard time making friends, and her mother refuses to play with her. She doesn't mind, though. She found a really friendly raccoon that likes to play with her! A...very weird looking racoon, but still, it's fun to play with him!

Lala has a variety of interests, and once of her favorite things to do is play with her little alchemy kit she has. It's a toy her mother got her, and it has all types of cool materials used to make some pretty awesome things. She absolutely loves it! Another interest of hers is gardening, though this is probably due to her love of nature in general, to be honest. She absolutely loves going outside and exploring. She loves a lot of things, actually.

Lala, currently, was chatting with some of her other internet friends. Friends she met on online forums and the like. They say they're fifteen, just like her! That's awesome! And they like all the same things. She has the best online friends ever! ...of course, she hasn't met them in real life, but she assumes they're telling the truth. She likes to believe that all people are good!

Suddenly, her pesterchum sent her a notification and she tilted her head and looked to see who messaged her. ...oh, it's this person. She better respond…

 **romanticExpository (RE) has begun trolling medicalDirectory (MD)**

RE: heeeeey (utie.

RE: howz it going?

MD: mmmm

MD: dont call me that

MD: please

MD: its already weird that you can apparently see me

MD: you dont need to call me cute.

MD: that ups the weirdness factor.

RE: oh, (ome on, itz true and you know it.

RE: youre the (utest out of all your friendz

RE: zure, itz weird that you wear (lothez that...i'm pretty zure are for the malez of your zpe(iez, but youre ztill a (utie.

MD: first of all, boy clothes can be pretty comfy. don't knock it till you try it

MD: and second of all, noooo. stop it.

RE: eh fine. i'll juzt talk to some of your other friends

MD: hey! we can still talk! just dont be so weird.

RE: i (all it romanti(, but fine

RE: it may be diffi(ult though

RE: what do you want to talk about?

RE: any weird dreams on prozpit?

RE: that ra((oon thing or whatever itz (alled doing zome weird ztuff?

MD: prospit?

MD: oh! yeah! the dream planet!

MD: no, nothing happening there, and the raccoon is fine, thanks for asking.

MD: i think hes digging through my garbage can right now.

RE: your guardian iznt going to like that you know.

MD: my mother doesn't like anything.

MD: i dont really care.

RE: alright if you zay zo.

MD: oh! also well be playing a game later today

MD: well me and my friends are at least.

RE: oh really?  
RE: zomething id enjoy?

MD: i think youd only enjoy a game of spin the bottle

RE: you know me zo well

MD: :)

MD: anyways the games called SBURB

MD: have you heard of it?

RE: oh, ZBURB?

RE: ive played ZGRUB but not ZBURB

RE: maybe you humans juzt (all it that.

MD: i dont know!

MD: this alien stuff is weird.

RE: youd get uzed to it after a while im zure.

RE: (utie ;)

MD: eeeeew. stop it.

RE: fine fine.

RE: only for you ;)

MD: thats...sweet?

MD: anyways i think i have to go. i have to prepare for the game and all!

RE: okay fine. zee you later

MD: bye!

 **romanticExpository (RE) has ceased trolling medicalDirectory (MD)**

Well, that went better than expected! Usually she keeps going with her flirtatious remarks. Luckily Lala was able to shut them down quickly. She must not be in a flirtatious mood right now, thankfully. She remembered the first time she started messaging her. That stuff was borderline M rated nonsense on her behalf, and she was not going to partake in that!

She then scooted away from her laptop and took a peek out the window, towards the house's garbage can. Sure enough, a raccoon was digging through the contents of the trash, trying to find something tasty to eat, like your average raccoon. Though, Lala was pretty sure that average raccoons didn't glow green, or have god-like powers. Yeah, you can't say an average raccoon does that.

Suddenly, the raccoon had left the garbage can and appeared in Lala's room within seconds. The girl smiled and then hugged the animal, which was essentially her pet by now. It had taken a strange liking to her, and only really showed himself when she was around. Lala wasn't even sure if her mother had seen it before. She had a special connection with this thing!

"Hang on, I'll get you some food." The girl said before standing up and rushing out of the room. Right, head down the hall, down the stairs….jump past the last step, of course! Oh, wait! Don't run here!

Slowly, Lala creeped away from the stairs and towards the kitchen. She'd have to pass the living room to do so. Hopefully...she wasn't there. Though, when Lala took a glance into the room, she was disappointed to see that her mother was in there, sitting on her fancy chair and watching T.V. Sitting next to her chair was Lala's own, which looked like some type of inflatable chair with a space design to it; a bunch of moons and saturns decorated the chair. It stuck out like a sore thumb compared to her mother's rather expensive looking chair.

Of course, this kind of difference was very common throughout this house. Lala's family was surprisingly rich, and while her mother often bought expensive stuff to show off their wealth, Lala didn't care for that, which is why she bought less expensive items, such as that inflatable chair that was next to her mother.

Lala would have to be sneaky if she wanted to get past her mother. Conversations with her were always...exciting, though, that may not be the right word for it. Lala took a few steps forward and then rolled so that she was halfway across the room. She landed on all fours and then crawled the rest of the way there. Once she got into the kitchen, she stood up and cleaned herself off. Well, that went better than expected.

Lala then walked over to the fridge and then opened it up. She grabbed some pieces of ham and then grabbed two pieces of bread from a bag on the kitchen counter. She made a sandwich with the ham and bread and looked around for the raccoon. He usually followed her here…

Ah! There he is! The animal appeared right in front of the girl, and she smiled. She showed the animal the sandwich and then tossed it into the air. The raccoon caught it in the air and then started to devour it. Well, it was certainly hungry. The girl held back a giggle and then patted the raccoon on the head.

"Hey, I'm going to go get my phone, and then we're going to go outside, okay?" She patted the animal on the head once more, but before she could go and get her phone, there was a green flash and, suddenly, her phone was right next to her, on the floor.

"Oh, that's one way to do it!" She smiled widely and then grabbed her phone. She put it in her pocket. She probably wasn't going to be on her phone much, though. That's just if one of her friends happened to message her while she was outside. With the game going on, there's going to be a lot of conversation going on! She would be lying if she didn't say she was excited about all this!

So, the girl motioned for the raccoon to follow and then walked to the front door. The animal followed her all the way to the door and outside. Once they were outside, they began to play a few games, though it was mostly just fetch. Yes, her pet raccoon with god powers can also play fetch. Isn't that amazing? ...Well, this is going to be boring to read. Let's move to someone else. Go! Further the plot!

=== Lala: be Fate

((Hey, look, an early chapter. I usually update on Sundays, unless once chapter isn't available at the time, which I doubt. I have chapters lined up, just waiting to be posted, I just don't want to overload everyone. I need to space these out, and typing them in advance lets me focus on other things. Anyways, I posted early to just...apologize for some problems that are there. Fanfiction is kind of silly and doesn't allow the arrow to be in a story, so the arrows just look like lines. That and the Pesterchum notifications are supposed to be in the middle, bold and underlined. It looks like that when I put a document into the manager, but apparently not when I upload it into the story. I apologize for the inconvenience. I've updated the previous chapters and made them look a tad bit nicer, but if you got this far, you probably don't care. I just felt I needed to apologize.

This may also be a good time to ask people for reviews. I want to get the reader's honest opinion on this, to see if I can do anything better. Without feedback I don't know what's bad and what's good. Even if you don't have anything to critique, at least leave a review saying there's no problems, otherwise I'm just sitting here writing awful fanfiction. I know some are busy and can't be bothered, but still, please at least try. If you find something wrong or something that can be improved, please tell me.

I rambled on quite a bit. I'm gone. See ya.))


	9. A Not so Efficient Start

We are now focusing on Fate once again, and by now he had changed his shirt after that sticky strife with his father. It's nice to not wear a shirt that's covered in carbonated beverages. It get's surprisingly sticky when you wear those things. Well, actually, it's not surprising. It's kind of like common logic, but whatever.

Now he was just waiting for his friends to contact him or something. Not like he could go outside to do something. It was way too hot out to do anything fun. He'd die if he stayed in that heat for too long. Best to stay inside...though they don't have air conditioning, so that's a problem, but whatever.

=== Fate: Do something to advance the plot.

Well, Fate couldn't do anything to make the plot move along, but something happened that did move the plot along!

Suddenly, Echo had left a message for him. Oh, wait, it wasn't a message for him. It was a message for everyone, considering it was a group chat. Well, she must have something important to say then. Better read this.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has added exaggerateEfficiently (EE), almandCream (AC), patrioticRequiem (PR), serialProsecutor (SP), and medicalDirectory (MD) to group chat**

TT: Okay, so no one respond to this just yet. Don't ask what's going on, and I don't want you calling me a communist, Phill.

PR: but you are one

PR: and my name has one l

TT: Phil, I said don't respond to this.

TT: Follow the rules.

TT: Anyways

TT: I have started up the game with Alma and when I did, there was a lot of things I had to do to actually get into the game, such as break my bed and throw a skull into a flashing ball of blue. I don't know if this is going to be the same with you all, but if it is, then here's a warning.

TT: Once you start the game, there's going to be a meteor heading to your house, from what I've found. Maybe meteors are still heading towards your houses. Maybe we're all on a time limit? I must say I don't know, but you must get in before the meteor lands, or else you're going to be incinerated, or crushed, or both.

TT: Please tell me when another of you get into the game, and I'll explain some of the mechanics I've managed to figure out.

EE: first of all

EE: you typed that up way too quickly.

EE: like i dont even know how you type that fast

MD: i agree

MD: thats fast! :O

TT: I'm using my glasses to type this.

TT: I combined them with my computer and made this thing, which functions like a computer, but are wearable like glasses.

EE: really?

EE: dude thats sweet

EE: but anyways second of all

EE: that stuffs true?

EE: about the meteor and all that?

EE: youre not joking?

TT: When have I ever joked around before?

TT: Well, at least about something like this?

EE: ...good point.

EE: well we have to get into the game then!

EE: what are you waiting for?

EE: connect to me!

TT: I will, just give me a moment.

TT: I have to fight a few imps.

EE: oh...okay

PR: y'all seem really gullible ya know?

PR: im sure this commie here is just playing mind tricks on us.

TT: Phil, for the last time, I am not a communist, and I don't think you even know much about Karl Marx in the first place.

PR: whatever you communist

SP: Be quiet and wait to get in the game.

SP: Shouldn't you be drinking orange juice or shooting some stupid targets?

SP: Maybe talking to your mother?

PR: you leave my mom out of this

PR: i swear to god i will...

PR: do something

PR: its hard to threaten people over the internet

MD: guys!

MD: lets just get along!

TT: I see that there may be an argument that'll sprout soon.

TT: I'm going to go ahead and connect to Fate before that happens.

TT: I'll talk to you later.

Fate was pretty sure Echo knew what would happen when she started that group chat, to be honest. Echo knew how unstable Phil and Gale's relationship was. She must have been expecting the worse, considering she left so quickly. Anyways, now he had to get into this game before any meteors come in or something...were there any meteors out there?

Fate navigated through his mess of a room and towards his window and took a look outside. His green irised eyes widened when he noticed not only one meteor, but multiple of them heading towards his house and the surrounding area. That was going to destroy Florida! He needed to get out of here!

While Fate was still staring out his window, Echo was able to connect and host his game. She picked the Totem Lathe and put it...wherever she could. With all this garbage in Fate's room, it was difficult to put these things anywhere. When she put the device down, the building shook slightly, causing Fate to jump.

The boy turned around and noticed the new machine. Oh, right, Echo must have connected. Uh...maybe he should clean some stuff up? Actually, how about no? That would take too much time, and he's got a game to play before the meteor hits. So, instead, the boy rushed over to his computer, where Echo was messaging her.

TT: You're room is a complete mess, you know.

TT: I don't know how you can live in this kind of state, but it's making it difficult to put down any machines.

EE: just put them downstairs or something.

EE: its cleaner down there than it is up here

EE: what else do you need to put down?

TT: To put it simply, some big machine called an Alchemiter, and something called a Cruxtruder. I'll explain what they do once I put them down.

Once again, the house rumbled as Fate could hear what sounded like the sound of something heavy being dropped. He assumed those were the machines and, after captchaloguing his laptop, walked downstairs. Right, hopefully he can figure all this out, and hopefully his dad won't be annoyed by machines suddenly appearing in the house.

As he stepped down the last steps of the staircase, he turned to the living room just in time to see his couch drop on the Cruxtruder. While his couch didn't break, it looked like it was about to as it slid off of the machine and onto the ground. The lid on top of the Cruxtruder opened and a dowel shot out and hit the ceiling, followed by some light green sprite.

Fate frowned and brought out his laptop and began to type.

EE: okay did you really have to drop my couch on the thing?

EE: couldn't you have at least found something else?

EE: like a bookshelf or something?

TT: I'm sorry, but I believe we don't have much time for this, judging by the space rock heading to your house.

TT: A couch is a small price to pay for your life, wouldn't you agree?

EE: i mean...yeah but it was a nice couch

TT: Could you just throw something in that sprite?

TT: Preferably something humanoid so it doesn't make some awful monstrosity, like how I managed to create.

EE: wait...i just throw some random object into this?

TT: Well, I'd prefer it being humanoid, but yes, you do.

TT: Now excuse me, I have to update the group chat with some information, and fight off some imps.

TT: I think they're trying to take my glasses.

TT: Excuse me.

Fate just nodded and looked around for anything he could toss into the sprite. Okay, there was some baseballs, a bat, and some small army men. Right, he could toss those in. He didn't want to throw in anything valuable, though it wasn't like they had much of that in his house anyways. So, he picked up one of the tiny army men and tossed it into the sprite.

There was a green flash, and Fate closed his eyes. When he opened them, he found that the sprite had changed. Now it was a floating head with an army helmet attached to it. It only took a few moments before the thing began to speak. It sounded like gunshots and canon fires. Very loud sounds. Good grief…

EE: i regret this decision!

EE: its loud as hell!

TT: You should have chose something better, then.

TT: Oh well.

TT: Take this card.

That was when a card appeared next to Fate. Instead of captchaloging it, he picked it up. It took a bit of explaining from Echo, but eventually he figured out what to do. He picked up a dowel and rushed towards his room, the gunshots from downstairs making his house sound like a warzone. Hopefully the neighbors don't complain.

He quickly put the dowel and card in the lathe, as Echo ordered. The girl was basically playing the game through him, and he was fine with that. He'd never figure this out on his own, at least. So, when the dowel finished being carved up, he grabbed it and then rushed towards the alchemiter, once Echo told him to do so.

Fate placed the dowel on the alchemiter and, like Echo with her alchemiter and dowel, an item appeared after the dowel was scanned. Fate climbed over to it and examined the item. It was a light green flower pot with a small sprout growing from it. He frowned and looked at his laptop, which he wasn't even bothering to captchalogue by now.

EE: okay what do i do about this?

TT: I have no idea, unfortunately.

EE: wait what?

EE: i thought you knew these things!

TT: I didn't get a flower pot, though.

TT: I got a magnifying glass.

TT: This is actually very interesting.

EE: oh yeah super interesting

EE: how about we read into it later when im not dead?

TT: Fine. We can do that.

TT: You try to figure out what you have to do with that flower.

TT: I feel like the answer is rather obvious, but you give this a shot.

EE: okay ill do that

Fate sighed and stared at the flower pot. What could he do? What could he do…? Well, the obvious answer would be to probably water it, but...it couldn't be that easy, could it? It was worth a shot, at least.

So, Fate hopped off the Alchemiter and rushed downstairs, towards the kitchen. Right, open the fridge. Water bottles...water bottles...what? There were no water bottles in here!? That's stupid! Fate groaned and just grabbed one of the dirty cups that was in the sink and filled it up with water. It probably didn't matter if the water was a bit contaminated.

Being sure not to spill the water, Fate walked back to his room, the sprite still yelling at him, if you count making gunshot and canon fire noises as yelling. He used one hand to cover one of his ears as he walked into his room. Where was his father, anyways? Maybe he was outside, or in the garage on his treadmill.

Fate walked over to the plant and took a deep breath. He then poured the water on the plant. What happened next was a bit of a surprise. The whole sprout turned into some big vine, growing out of the pot. There were a lot of beans growing on the vine, and Fate picked a few of them off the vine. Things...weren't supposed to grow like that, but whatever. What were these beans supposed to do? Was he supposed to eat them?

These things may taste disgusting, but if Fate was going to live, it was worth it. He popped the beans into his mouth and made a face due to the taste. Ugh, that was awful!

There was suddenly a light green flash, covering the entire property, and when the flash disappeared, the whole house was gone, including the area around it. The meteor came in soon afterwards, followed by a few others as they struck the earth's surface. Luckily, Fate had entered the game, but with four other kids having to enter the game, one can only wonder if they can get in the game in time.

=== Fate: Look around

* * *

 **I realized I didn't post up a new chapter on sunday. Whoops. Sorry about that, guys, but I guess it gives me a chance to respond to a certain review I had.**

 **Tohshi: Okay, so, I understand my spelling mistakes and stuff. I apologize for that. I'm typing most of this stuff on a chromebook, which I'm not used to at all. I also type all these things in, like...hour intervals, so I do sort of breeze through everything to get it done. Obviously I take my time if the chapter demands it. I know that the pacing is weird. One chapter may be face paced, or just it gets more done, while the other is slower and doesn't get much done. Finding the balance between progress and filler is a bit difficult. I hope that I can improve that in the future, once all the introductions are...mostly over. The editing sweep may very well happen, if I feel like I need to sweep through things and change the errors. Thank you for your feed back, though. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. It means a lot to me.**

 **I have things planned for this that...may not make the most sense, unfortunately, but hopefully you can bear with me for that.**


	10. Pens Aren't The Best Weapons

Fate, who has closed his eyes due to the awful taste of the beans, slowly opened them and looked around. He patted his chest once or twice. Right, right, not dead. Is the meteor still out there, though?

Fate hopped off of the machine and rushed to his window. When he looked outside, he was met with what was actually a rather pretty site. The sun was shining and there was just grass as far as he could see. Well, not just grass. There were also small flowers and little saplings; trees attempting to grown on this planet.

Fate. though confused about his new surroundings, just shrugged and then went back to his computer. He had to tell Echo about all this.

EE: do you happen to know where i am?

EE: because i dont

TT: I don't believe you are anywhere around me.

TT: Give me a moment, I'll ask the skullman

EE: the what?

TT: It's a bit of a long story.

TT: Now give me a moment.

EE: fine sure.

TT: Okay, I'm back.

TT: He said you're not going to be over here.

TT: We won't be able to meet each other until...a while.

TT: He won't tell me when we'll be able to meet.

TT: It just won't be right now.

EE: wait do you have a guide over there or something?

EE: who are you even talking to?

TT: My guide.

TT: He says he's something called a sprite. He's trying to fill me in on what to do, but he leaves terrible jokes in his explanations. I almost don't want to listen.

EE: wait how do i get a guide?

EE: i want a guide!

TT: Throw something else into that sprite of yours and it should be able to talk.

TT: Just toss whatever in it.

EE: alright just give me a moment.

Fate grabbed one of the first objects he found, which was a small picture of him when he was little, and tossed it into the sprite. Once again, there was a light green flash, and once it disappeared, the sprite had changed.

It still had that army helmet, and now it had a military backpack on it's ghostly body. Instead of the older face it had before, which resembled that of the army man Fate threw in, it now had the face of Fate from when he was younger. It was actually scarily accurate. What was also scary was how it was yelling at him.

"Alright you maggot!" the sprite shouted, sounding similar to Fate's voice, except higher pitched, because it was supposed to be him when he was younger. Fate wasn't sure whether he should find this amusing or intimidating. "Time to get down to business."

Fate blinked and slowly nodded before typing on his computer.

EE: okay im scared of this thing

EE: its like me

EE: but not

EE: what the heck?

TT: That was your fault, I'm just saying.

TT: You shouldn't have thrown a picture in there.

TT: It takes resemblance of what you throw in.

EE: i know that!

EE: i just thought itd be nicer or something..?

EE: i dont know.

EE: is there anything else i can do?

TT: Actually there is.

TT: Would you like to combine objects to make some possibly useful items?

EE: ...heck yes!

EE: that sounds cool!

EE: how do i do that?

TT: I'll explain it to you.

And Echo definitely did explain. It took a lot of explaining from Echo, and she got frustrated when Fate was getting confused, but eventually they were able to make at least...something. Fate had combined his laptop with some random book he found lying around. It basically turned into a laptop, which would be useful if it didn't only show books, so he was just going to...try that again.

Then he combined his laptop with a baseball hat he had, with the encouragement of Echo. A lot more useful than his book laptop, which was basically a Kindle. Who even uses Kindles? Not this kid. With the Hatop he had a screen that appeared over his eyes whenever he wanted it to. It was pretty useful.

=== Fate: Go on an Alchemizing spree

Well, fate was just about to do that. It wasn't long until he decided to combine his pen with something. Let's try...a pencil. Why not. Fate captchalogued a pencil and went through the whole process.

"Let's move it!" The sprite shouted as he followed Fate around. He was really taking this military general thing seriously. "You have to move faster! I've seen faster alchemizing from my grandmother!"

"We haven't even met our grandmother!" Fate shouted as he stuck the new dowel into the Alchemiter. What came out was a writing utensil that was a pen on one side and a pencil on the other. Fate picked it up and examined it. Okay, this was pretty useless. Not only did the pencil not have an eraser, but he also couldn't make that satisfying clicking sound that pens made.

"I don't understand why I need this," he muttered as he picked up two baseballs. What can he do with these? Well, only one way to find out!

He combined the two baseballs with a pen and pencil and made...well, they still looked like baseballs. One of the projectiles had a bunch of sharp objects poking out of it. It definitely looked like a safety violation. The other object was see through, and inside Fate could see a bunch of black ink just moving around in the ball. Okay...that's pointless. All of this is pointless. Well, not really. That baseball with the pencils in it has a lot of points.

Fate then just combined two things that...may come end up being something good. It was a laser pointer he had in his room that probably had a dead battery and, of course, a pen. The result was...well, a laser pen. He hit the little button on the bottom of the pen and a laser shot out. Didn't cut through the wall, though, luckily. He then grabbed a batter that...was probably almost dead, or at least halfway charged. Eh, why not? The battery and pen combination made...what looked like a normal pen, but Fate was assuming it was a shock pen. Better not click that.

Fate was about to go and alchemize more stuff, probably just his pen with a shirt he had, but before he could, there was a sound of a door breaking down. His sprite started screaming things like "Sound the alarm!", "Man the battle stations!" "Beat them so badly they run crying to their mommies!"

Fate didn't take his advice, though, and he only stared at the doorway as a few imps marched through it. Their appearance...was honestly somewhat frightening. Some of them had skull heads, though some of them had other skeletal body parts. Most of them were wearing army helmets, which weren't properly strapped, so they looked like they were about to fall off their heads. Though, what really worried Fate was when he noticed one of them was holding what looked like a rifle.

Fate's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed the pointy pencil baseball thing. He chucked it at the one holding the gun as hard as he could. Though...he was never good at baseball, and while it hit the imp, it didn't kill him or anything. It did make the imp back up, though, which was when Fate decided to go in and attack. This was a stupid idea…

The boy rushed in there with his newly acquired pen pencil weapon (would it just be called a pencil?) and began stabbing at whatever he could reach, making sure to use the pen side of his weapon. If he just used the pencil, the lead would probably break.

While the battle was going surprisingly well for the human, when he heard the gunshots he stopped what he was doing. The imp just tried to shoot him! He was getting shot at! Okay, time to run!

So, despite the sprite telling the boy to stay, Fate rushed out of the room and down the stairs, making sure his hat didn't fall off as he did. When he thought this couldn't get any worse, Echo started messaging him.

TT: You seem to be having a problem there.

EE: this is not the time right now!

EE: woah that was fast.

EE: this things awesome!

EE: oh wait not the time

TT: Do you want me to help at all?

EE: if you can go ahead and do it before im shot!

Rather suddenly, there was a loud thump and the house shook once again. Fate blinked and rushed upstairs to see what happened. When he went up, he only saw a bunch of Grist on the floor next to his bed, which had been moved, apparently. His sprite was also demanding that he picked up the Grist now. He followed the sprite thing's orders, since he really didn't know what to do.

EE: oh uh thanks

EE: what did you do?

TT: I dropped your bed on them.

EE: oh...okay i guess

EE: thanks

TT: You're welcome.

TT: And I recommend you get out there and explore where you are.

TT: I think the your father left once you appeared in this land.

TT: I saw someone spinning a yo-yo run off in the distance.

EE: what!?

EE: why didnt you tell me?

TT: You were having such fun alchemizing that I thought you didn't want to be bothered.

TT: I don't think he's captured, though.

EE: right well hes a strong guy

EE: im sure he can fight these imps

TT: Yes, quite.

TT: You should still go out and explore, though.

EE: right right ill go do that.

EE: but what about gale?

TT: You can still get him in.

TT: You can access SBURB with that hat of yours.

EE: oh thats awesome!

EE: okay see ya.

TT: Goodbye.

exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)

Man, this game was awesome! It was off the chain, if you prefer that! This game didn't want anything to do with the chain. It was chained and it just bit its leg off just to get off that chain, man! Now it's off the chain and amazing! Of course...people are probably going to die, since this game seems dangerous, but...oh well!

Fate rushed out of his room, hopped down his stairs, and then rushed out of the house. The weather was warm and there was a light breeze running through. He made sure not to step on the growing plants, though. This was going to be awesome!

=== Fate: be Echo


	11. Land of Statistics and Emotion (LOSAE)

Echo sat inside her property. Well, actually, she was sitting right where the property line ended. When she tried to leave the property, her sprite said that they refused to go any further, so now she had to talk to this thing before leaving.

"And why can't you leave here?" Echo asked. "Are you bound here or something? Like an NPC stuck in the beginning of the game?"

The sprite shrugged as best as it could. "I guess you could say that! I am kind of stuck here, but I'll be able to leave eventually! It's bound to happen! Oh ho ho!"

"That wasn't even a funny joke," Echo said with a shake of her head. She adjusted her glasses. "So what exactly am I supposed to do here?"

"Ah, right! Well, you see, the denizen of this land, the person you have to fight eventually, has brought a type of curse onto this land, the Land of Statistics and Emotions, by the way. The people living here are very void of emotion. They don't seem to care for one another. They're cold and analytical. Do you think a society can function when no one cares for another?"

Echo nodded. "Right, well, now that I got a sense of what's happening, how do I fix this?"

"Well, how you fix it is up to you," said the sprite. "but what you need to do is get rid of this lack of emotion that the people are suffering from! Afterwards, you must go and fight the denizen, and make sure this doesn't happen again. How do you do that? Well, you'll figure that out once a plan goes into e-motion!"

"You are not amusing in the slightest," the girl said before standing up. "Alright, so, if that's what I must do, then I'll go do it. When will I see you again?"

"When you get to a certain level, of course! Afterwards I can come with you! Anywhere and at any time."

"I'll get moving then. Hopefully you can be my guide again soon enough." She turned around and stared at the small city off in the distance. That would be a good place to go, as there were probably people there. So, she set off in that direction.

When she had reached her destination she took a look around and was somewhat surprised at what she saw. She expected this place to be populated by humans, but she would be wrong. Instead, what looked like big chameleons were just walking around, not paying her any mind.

Echo frowned slightly and walked over to one of the chameleon people. She tapped them on the shoulder and they turned to face her. "Excuse me, can you tell me where exactly I am." Could this thing even understand English?

Well, Echo really wouldn't get much of an answer, as the chameleon only made some odd squawking sound and then walked off. Uh...chameleons weren't supposed to do that, right?

 _Uh...maybe you shouldn't pay attention to these things...they don't seem useful…_

Echo suddenly got the idea to just stay away from these things. They probably wouldn't be that useful for her anyways. She should just focus on her quest, though, how she was going to accomplish that was unknown. How could she slap emotion into these people when she could barely express emotion on her own?

Another question to ask was where her sister was. She hadn't seen her around yet. Though it was normal to not see her sister most of the day, you'd think she'd show herself considering the current situation. There were dangerous creatures around. Echo just sighed and tried to figure out where to go. There were no landmarks, though. Just fields. Empty fields at that; it was nothing but grass. Very simplistic.

 _Just go north. You're bound to find something, right…?_

Honestly, Echo wouldn't resort to doing such a thing normally. She's try to find a map or something and then look around for anything important, but she suddenly had this idea to just...walk. She doubted this land only had one village, and she was bound to find something eventually. So, she headed north, or at least where she thought north was. She didn't have a compass.

Though, walking didn't end up going well for her. She hadn't found anything else in the distance after a few minutes of walking, and already the town that she left was starting to disappear as she got farther and farther away. It wasn't long afterwards that she came across a group of imps, followed by one taller, brutish looking fellow. When she approached, they all looked at her, and she noted that the brute had a rifle. Right, this was going to be difficult…

Echo let out a hum as the imps slowly approached her. She tapped her broom against the ground and then leapt forward, making a wide sweeping motion with her broom. Most of the imps were quick enough to step back, but one of them got unlucky and was impaled by the many knives the broom possessed.

Echo then began to run circles around the imps. She needed to keep moving, or else she'd probably get a bullet to the head. She'd jump out of her circular movements every once and awhile to stab an imp, but other than that, she was being careful.

Though, despite her being careful, the brute had been able to shoot her broom handle, knocking the weapon out of her hands. She watched as the broom flew out of her hands, turning back to the brute before she could see it hit the ground. Suddenly, her thistled boxing gloves were on her hands. She attempted to adjust her glasses, but that only made them fall further down her face.

=== Echo: Beat these guys

Why, that's a wonderful idea! Though, Echo didn't need a command to at least attempt to do that. Echo put her hands up in what she hoped was an actual boxing position. The brute pointed his rifle at her, ready to shoot.

YOUTH ROLL!

Echo rolled out of the way, stumbling to get up on her feet. When she stood up, she punched a nearby imp in the face, causing him to turn into nothing but Grist. She then turned back to the brute. This was going to be stupid, but...it's worth a shot. So, she ran straight towards the brute...the one carrying the rifle.

The brute attempted to take aim, but Echo was moving in zigzags, moving too quickly for him to get a good shot. Instead, he just fired randomly, hoping to hit the girl. I'd be lying if I said she went through that without a scratch. The bullet grazed past her ear and she winced due to how close that bullet was. If she was just a step off…

Echo then reached the brute and jumped up to punch him in the face. The brute put a hand to his face and took a few step back, leaving him open to attack. Echo pelted him with as many attacks as she could, hitting his stomach and his arms. Eventually, all that was left of the brute was grist, like the other imps Echo had killed.

Echo, while trying to regain herself, looked around. There were a few imps left, but they didn't look so enthusiastic to fight her. One of them had rushed over to her Stab 'n Sweep (what she decided to call her broom) and tried to pick it up. Echo narrowed her eyes.

"Put that down," she said, her voice cold and void of emotion. The imp seemed startled and put down the weapon, their skeletal bodyparts shaking and making 'click clack' sounds. Seemed Echo did a good job at intimidating, as now the imps were just running off. It must have been because she took care of the brute. Maybe he was some sort of leader to them. Echo didn't have time to ask them, though. She was too focused on getting her broom back. So, she walked back over to it and picked it up. "Maybe I need better weaponry…"

Well, that could wait later. Echo still had a quest to do. She captchalogued the weapon, took off one of the gloves and, after captchaloging that too, adjusted her glasses. Just continue north. There has to be something here.

=== Echo: Continue walking

And that she did. Hopefully she'll come across something eventually.

=== Years in the future


	12. Stuck in Exile

=== Years in the future

But not many years. Not many at all. The next part of the story takes place on a desert planet, where there is nothing but ruined buildings and sand. A whole bunch of sand. However, in the middle of this rather depressing looking scene of a planet that was void of life, was a large metal ball, with a picture of a green house on it, divided into six squares.

Inside this metal ball was a Suspicious Adventurer, currently feeling up the walls for the way out. You couldn't really tell what this Dersian looked like, though, considering she was wrapped in tin foil. She had to admit, wrapping herself in tin foil was not as good of an idea as she had thought. She'd go outside and feel like a baked potato or something. Not like she remembered what a baked potato looked like, She hasn't seen that kind of food in at least a week. She was just happy this place had food. Though, while the food was nice, she wanted out of here.

=== SA: Look around your surroundings.

SA has already done that many times before, and could not find anything that was of use. There were metal walls, cans of food scattering the place (though, that was because of her), and there's this big computer with six screens, but she could only get one of them to work. That girl on the screen...she was the only interaction SA had gotten while in this bunker. It was...nice, but she never talked back, really.

This girl...what was her name, anyways? Maybe she should ask her that. Just give her a moment. This may take a moment.

 _Excuse me, girl, what is your name?_

The glasses wearing girl stopped her walking and looked around, maybe trying to find who spoke to her. "My name is Echo," she said, looking more than a bit suspicious. Where was that voice coming from.

Echo...that's a nice name. Well, SA had just seen this Echo go through a fight with some of the imps and brutes. To be perfectly honest, she didn't really like those people. They seemed very mean and looked like shady people. Echo didn't look badly hurt, but she just wanted to make sure.

 _Are you hurt? Are you bleeding? Do you need medical assistance?_

Honestly, she wasn't sure how she'd be able to provide the girl medical assistance, but she would certainly try to find away! She was a smart one. She could figure this out, right?

"I'm fine," the girl muttered, SA barely being able to hear her. Echo was still wondering who she was talking to. The Canadian girl couldn't see anyone… "Who are you, anyways?"

 _I...don't really think that's important...I'm just here...in a bunker._

"Here? As in where I am?" The girl was now talking at a normal volume. She didn't know how close this person was, but she wanted to be heard clearly. "Because if so then I may be able to meet you."

 _I'm not where you are...I'm somewhere else, but thank you for the offer...I really need to find a way out…_

"Oh, so you're trapped there? Maybe you should focus on that instead of talking to me."

 _Right, I should do that...give me a moment._

Well, that was a nice conversation. SA was glad to have at least some conversation, but she needed to find a way out of here. She took another glance around. There was nothing of interest here...well, there was that big red button up on the wall, but she had pressed that a long time ago. She was either going to die in here, or someone was going to find her.

=== SA: Kick the wall

Kicking the wall, unfortunately, did nothing but bang up her foot. Right, that was a bad idea. She didn't even know why she did that. Ow, her foot...that really was pointless. That wasn't going to work, so, SA just sat down and waited. How long had she been here anyways? It didn't seem like that long, but maybe she had been here for days, or maybe even weeks. All she knew was that she was going through food quicker than she should.

=== SA: And the hours pass…

And nothing happens. SA looked like she was about to nod off, the Dersite slowly making her eyes come to a close. It was pointless to stay awake the whole time. She might as well fall asleep while she can. Though, before she could fall asleep entirely, she heard what sounded like an explosion, causing her to jump.

She turned to the source of the noise, ready to run if she had to. She saw a giant hole in the wall, leading to the outside world, and standing in the middle of the whole in the wall was another Dersite, this one being taller than her. While SA was wrapped in tinfoil, this one was wrapped in red and white paper, with the occasional red exclamation point here and there. The Daring Pilgrim has made his entrance.

=== SA: Freak out.

Don't need to tell her twice. She would have screamed if tin foil wasn't covering her mouth. She jumped up and ran to the very back of the bunker. This person just blew a hole in the wall! This seemed way too dangerous!

Though, she heard the loud footsteps behind her and could tell that the other Dersite was following her. Oh god, what could he want!? Was he going to hurt her, or worse? Of course...she could just be paranoid, but still...she wasn't taking any chances.

Though, she soon reached the back wall of the bunker. It wasn't that big, and she knew she couldn't run very far. She turned around to face the newcomer, who had slowed down to a walk. He seemed out of breath as he walked over to SA, who was now shaking and obviously filled with possibly unnecessary fear.

DP stopped when he was only a few steps away from her, and then his eyes shifted slightly. They looked...friendly? Maybe he was smiling underneath all those warning labels he was wearing. He then raised up a hand and waved in greeting.

SA stared at him for a moment before, too, slowly raising a hand. She looked rather hesitant as she waved, but didn't make any moves to run away, which DP was thankful for. It was obvious she was scared, so he appreciated her doing this.

DP then turned to the hole he blew in the wall before looking at SA and pointing at it. His base was out there! Maybe she wanted to take a look at it? It was a new addition to the bunker's surroundings, as DP had accidentally moved it by activating some button, making his own base lift into the air like a rocket.

SA looked over to the hole and nodded. Right, he didn't look dangerous. Perhaps she could trust him, for now, at least. She didn't have a weapon if he decided to go aggressive, though, but...hopefully that won't happen. She quickly walked past DP and towards the hole in the wall. It'd been a long time since she breathed fresh air.

DP was quick to join SA as she hopped out of the bunker and looked around. The world, unfortunately, was still the same way as she had left it. A barren landscape with nothing but sand, sand and more sand. Well, actually, seeing another bunker close to hers was new. It looked...big, too. Very big. Her bunker was actually pretty small.

DP soon lead her inside the huge bunker before getting an idea. Without warning her, he grabbed SA's hand and rushed off, having something to show her. Oh, oh! This was cool! She'd like this!

DP lead her to a room with some very big screens, but, like SA's bunker, only one of them worked, and it showed some boy with black hair, sitting at his computer with headphones on. DP told his fellow Dersite to "Watch this".

He then cracked his knuckles and got to typing. It was in all caps, and SA couldn't tell if that was on accident or not. Hopefully he wasn't yelling at this boy.

"YOU THERE, BOY!"

=== Years in the past

* * *

 **Going to admit, this chapter is small, and probably kind of irrelevant, but I wanted to add something like this to my story. It's more filler than anything. Sorry, guys.** **The next chapter won't be so pointless**


	13. Back to the Past

But currently in the present. The story once more focuses on Gale, who was currently waiting for Fate to get him into the game. Besides his father's music blaring from downstairs, he could feel the ground shake every once and awhile. Were those the meteors falling? Most likely. He needed to get in the game soon, and then everyone else would have to very soon. Gale, though, was trying to ignore that face for the moment and just listen to music to try and calm himself.

It was then that he had gotten a message. He was hoping it was from Faith, but instead he had gotten some guy he barely ever had actual conversations with. Lovely.

 **triggerApocalypse (TA) has begun trolling serialProsecutor (SP)**

TA: *the gReat waRRioR had aPPRoached the sheRiff of the small, insignificant town, his helmet coveRing the entiRety of his face*

SP: The sheriff would like to mention that he can't do this roleplay business now, as he's in danger of being crushed by meteors.

TA: *the gReat waRRioR took a moment to Process this before coming to a conclusion. "aRe you Playing sbuRb?" he asked*

SP: How many times to I have to tell you that you don't put the quotation marks inside the asterisks?

SP: I don't care if it feels weird not to do that.

SP: Anyways, yes, I'm playing Sburb.

TA: *you don't have to be so Rude about it. that isn't how you talk to a high blood anyways*

TA: *i'll have you know that i am in a veRy high Position in the alteRnian nobility*

SP: And I'll have you know that your roleplay planet of Alternia doesn't matter right now.

TA: *okay alteRnia isn't even a PaRt of this RolePlay!"

TA: *it is veRy Real!*

SP: Right, okay.

SP: How about you go talk to your friends while I wait for mine to get me in the game?

SP: Because I'm a bit busy at the moment.

TA: *wow you Really aRe no fun at the moment*

SP: Having meteors come in to kill you does that to you.

TA: *fine, whateveR.*

TA: *i'll just leave then. i'll come back when you'Re not dying*

TA: *though when you Play this game theRe's always a chance of dying.*

SP: Right, thanks for that. Makes me feel good about the outcomes of this game.

SP: Good bye.

 **serialProsecuter (SP) has left the chat with triggerApocalypse (TA)**

Normally Gale could handle that guy, but now was not the time to be doing this silly roleplay. He has a game to get into, and he's not going to deal with this "gReat waRRioR" of his. And the only thing he ever wants to do is roleplay anyways. He doesn't even like it that much, but he does it so TA doesn't complain.

Gale was then about to message Fate, asking him what was taking him so long, but suddenly there was some loud noise in his house and the house shook. He thought it might have been another meteor, but then he noticed the notifications from Fate. How did he miss these? Well, he better look at them…

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has begun pestering serialProsecutor (SP)**

EE: hey dude i connected to your game

EE: give me a moment this is going to take me a while to figure out

EE: and im playing this from a hattop which seems pretty difficult

EE: lets try picking this up…

EE: oh shit!

EE: uh...right, lets just put things down.

SP: ...Fate?

EE: um...yeah?

SP: What did you do?

EE: i...dropped your bathtub down the stairs.

EE: sorry.

SP: ...honestly I don't even care at the moment.

SP: Just get what I need into my house.

EE: right right ill do that

EE: alchemiter...totem lathe...cruxtruder...right.

EE: You know how to use these things?

SP: Echo explained it all in the group chat, so yeah, I do.

EE: okay cool.

EE: so ill just put these down and you do whatever.

EE: and is this your card?

A card suddenly floated up to Gale. He blinked and snatched it from the air before examining it. Right, this was what he needed. Gale nodded and then hopped off his seat as Fate put down a few machines in the house. It'd be better if Fate hadn't just put these items in random places in the house, but oh well.

No machine was actually in Gale's room, so he stepped out of his room in search for the Alchemiter. It luckily didn't take him long to find it. After climbing over his bathtub and down the stairs, where all the music was coming from, he saw the Cruxtruder in his living room, already open. There was a toilet next to the machine, so Gale could only assume Fate dropped his toilet on the machine. What was with that guy and bathroom appliances?

Gale shook his head and then turned the valve on the machine. A cruxite dowel came out, colored a cardinal red. Gale picked it up and took a glance downstairs. Hmm, he couldn't find his father anywhere. That was weird. He assumed that the music meant he was down here. Maybe not…honestly, he may just be in the basement.

Gale then decided he'd just look for him later and then looked around for the totem lathe, currently ignoring the kernelsprite that was following him through the house. He can take care of that in a bit. He needed to at least get this artifact, as it may take him a while to figure out what to do. Hopefully he can brain storm with the rest of the group, though.

He found the totem lathe in the hallway leading to the bathroom. Right, put the dowel here...put the card there, and you get a carved totem! Gale waited for the machine to finish and, once the totem was finished, he captchalogued it and hurried off to find the Alchemiter. Right, where would it be? ...in the bathroom?

Gale walked to the bathroom doorway and looked inside. Nope, no giant machine in here. Maybe it was in the kitchen? The kitchen was pretty big. So, Gale walked over to the kitchen, the sprite still following him and flashing like crazy. Yeah, that was a seizure ball. How could anyone stand that?

Gale entered the kitchen and, sure enough, there was the Alchemiter. He then tried to take the dowel out and put it on the machine, but his modus beeped. Oh, right, he had to answer some pointless question. Stupid trivia modus...what is this? What is the capital of Fiji? Oh come on! Uh, four answers, so...not Ontario. That's obvious. Not London. Uh...either Melbourne or Suva. ...Suva sounds right. Hit that.

He answered the question as best as he could, and his modus dinged. He got it right. The dowel appeared in his hands and he smiled. Okay, cool. Now just put this here and see what happens…

Like all the other times, some tools came out to scan the dowel and its unique carving. Once it finished its scan, there was a zap of red light and on the machine was...a floating ball. Kind of like the Kernelsprite, except it wasn't shining like crazy.

Gale frowned a bit and tried to touch it, but before he could make contact with it, it shot off and went into the living room, bumping into walls and shelves and knocking things off, and generally making a mess.

"Hey! Get back here!" Gale shouted and ran after the seemingly sentient artifact. He picked up one of the things that dropped off the shelves, intending to use it as a projectile. It was one of his dad's "disguises", which was really just glasses, a big nose and a black mustache. Well, it'd have to do for now. He pulled his arm back, took aim, and then threw the object at the artifact, who just so happened to be zooming past the sprite as he did.

The disguise missed the artifact, but it hit the sprite, and ended up prototyping it. What came out as a result was just a cardinal red disguise appearing over the seizure ball. It looked almost comical in a way, but having seen things kind of like this so many times, Gale didn't find much humor to it. Though, Fate was laughing his rear end off, as he could see what was happening to the house due to being the server player.

Gale shook his head and watched as the artifact continued to make a mess. He groaned and then began to walk upstairs. Right, he's got this. He's got a plan. He walked into his room and picked up his pair of handcuffs. He glanced out the window and only saw more meteors falling from the sky. He rushed out of his room and down the stairs, where the artifact was still causing damage.

The boy took a deep breath and opened one of the cuffs. Right, catch the thing, and handcuff it to something so it stays still. So, after preparing himself for this, he ran after the artifact, who was now rushing down the hallway towards the bathroom. It flew straight into the bathroom, and Gale followed it inside. He tried to jump up and handcuff it, but the artifact suddenly flew out of the bathroom.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," he muttered before running after the cardinal red ball. He needed to catch this thing soon, if he wanted all his friends to get into the game. He rushed down the hall and found the artifact now knocking down all the shelves. As soon as he entered the room, the artifact zoomed off, Gale following it once more.

This was a lengthy cycle. Gale would follow the artifact into a room, and it would just zoom off. It didn't take long for Gale to start getting tired. Right, one more time. One more time. If you don't get it, it's game over.

Gale rushed forward to the artifact, the two of them now being in the kitchen. Before the artifact could zoom off again, Gale jumped up and reached out for the ball. This time, amazingly, he was able to grab it. It put up a fight, certainly. It tried to get out of his reach, but he attached one side of his handcuff to the ball, and the other side of the handcuffs he attached to the faucet of the sink. The artifact couldn't go anywhere. He did it.

Gale let out a chuckle, but before he could really enjoy his victory, there was a bright flash and the entire house disappeared as the rest of the world continued being pelted by meteors.

=== Gale: Continue the gaming process

* * *

 **Man, almost gave myself a heart attack when uploading this. Accidentally deleted the whole chapter, but luckily I had another copy. Probably going to make a copy of he story once more just in case. Anyways, hope you're enjoying so far.**


	14. Land of Chaos and Monarchy

Gale wasted no time as he entered the game and took a look around. Right, nothing seemed to change. That's great, actually. No evil creatures or anything. Well, unless you count that sprite, who now had a body. That thing was an ungodly abomination just due to what it was combined with.

Gale shook his head and looked around for something else to prototype it with. He's read the memo from Echo, so he knew exactly what to do. Hmm...toy gun? No way. Sounds too dangerous. Headphones? No, he wanted those for music. Maybe...yeah, the sheriff badge. That works. The boy, after running to his room to pick up the badge, tossed it at the sprite (who had followed him into his room) like a ninja star. It hit it's mark and the sprite was prototyped once more.

The result...was even more humorous than before, surprisingly. It still kept the ridiculous glasses, nose and mustache, but now it had a cowboy hat, a belt with a pistol holster, and the sheriff badge. ...what on earth was this monstrosity?

"Howdy, partner!" the sprite greeted. "Let's get on out there and wrestle with some o' them imps."

"Oh, you're southern. That's great." Gale shook his head and then walked over to the Alchemiter. "Before we go fighting imps, how about I get some actual weapons?"

"Sounds like a plan, partner," the hat on top of the sprite tipped towards Gale as he began to start the alchemizing process.

=== And the alchemizing process starts…

Gale, first, alchemized his computer with his headphones, making some computer headphones that brought out a screen whenever he needed it. Making a computer device was practically a requirement for these kids, or else they'd be having problems. It took a moment for him to get used to the device, but eventually he got the hang of it. Right, now time to make a weapon.

Unfortunately, Gale's specibus only supported pepperspraykind, which really limited his options, as well as his limited amount of Grist. He needed to kill some imps if he wanted to make some cool stuff. He was at least able to combine a can of pepper spray with a party blower, making the Party Pepper Blower. It was actually kind of useful. As long as he could blow into it, it would shoot out pepper spray, it seemed.

There wasn't much else that he could think of at the moment that didn't cost much Grist. He was able to combine his handcuffs with some rope that he found lying around. He's not even going to ask why the rope was there. It made some type of...bola...thing. He was assuming that if he threw it at someone, it would handcuff them. Actually kind of useful. That and he could just beat an imp to death with it if he was desperate. Or choke them or something.

Other than that, he couldn't make anything useful...besides a shirt. Actually, let's do something here. He combined a shirt with a little police officer figure he found and came out with a police officer's uniform. Well, at least the shirt. He didn't have the hat or the pants, but this shirt was pretty damn cool.

He quickly put it on and then brought up the computer screen. Right, time to message Fate.

SP: Hey, Fate, how do I look?

EE: hmm?

EE: oh did you change your clothes or something

EE: sorry i got a bit distracted let me look

EE: ...dude, you look awesome!

SP: That's what I thought.

EE: no like you look like youre ready to lay down the law man.

EE: those imps wont know what hit them

SP: No need to kiss up to me.

SP: You know we're on good terms.

EE: be quiet

EE: just take the compliment and dont be smug

SP: Fine, fine.

SP: Now excuse me. I'm going to find some imps.

SP: I need some more grist.

EE: okay have fun with that.

EE: i kind of have to deal with something so excuse me

SP: Okay. Talk to you later.

Well, it was nice to get some compliments about his outfit. Fate thought the same thing he did about the outfit. It was awesome. It was like he was an actual police officer, enforcing the rules and whatnot. Anyways, time to go outside.

Gale walked out of his house and took a look around. What he noticed right away was that he was...right next to a city. Well, at least a populated area. He wasn't sure if he could call it a city. Anyways, Gale then noticed the horrible conditions of the buildings. They were all broken up or vandalized. There was graffiti, saying and illustrating some rather vulgar things, and there was a few broken windows covered up by wood planks. This place looked awful.

"Where the heck are we?" he muttered, looking at his sprite. He was supposed to be some kind of guide, right? He could tell him what's going on, hopefully. He's a sheriff, so he kind of has to help anyways.

The sprite looked around and made a face, like some sheriff who just found the leader of some rule breaking posse, or something like that. Does anyone even use the word posse anymore outside of those wild west shows? "The Land of Chaos and Monarchy," he answered, though judging by the look on Gale's face, he wasn't satisfied with that answer, so the sprite continued.

"If yer expecting this place t'be pleasant, you'd be wrong. As the name says, the people around here are chaotic. They ain't got any sheriffs, any police officers, anything to enforce the rules."

Gale frowned. "Who's in charge here, then?" he asked. "There has to be someone in charge. Can't we just talk to them and tell them to fix things up?"

The sprite chuckled. "Nah, no one's in charge now. Used t'be a kind here, though. The people overthrew him, though. His rules, apparently, weren't to their liking. They overthrew him and put 'im in the dungeons. Ever since, people just go by their own rules. Anyone who disagrees with them usually gets killed."

"Okay, we have to fix that," Gale said with a shake of their head. "We need to go to the dungeon and get this guy out before these guys kill themsleves even more." This was...just appalling.

The sprite nodded. "Y'er right 'bout that, partner," he said. "I suggest you make it quick, though. The king's set to be executed eventually. The denizen himself is gonna do it. If you save the king, you'll have to deal with the denizen."

Gale nodded. "Well, I didn't think it would be easy," he muttered. "Where exactly is this castle?"

"In the middle of this here land," the sprite answered, glancing around with what would probably be narrowed eyes if he had actual eyeballs. "Though, gettin' there is gonna be difficult. There are powerful people here."

Gale nodded. "We'll just have to see about that," he said as he took a few steps into the city. A glance around didn't reveal any enemies at the moment, but after walking through the area close to his house, he was suddenly jumped by a few imps that were hiding in an alleyway. When Gale saw them he wasn't sure if he should laugh or not.

One imp had a giant nose, one had a mustache and another had some big glasses. One had a skeletal arm as well as some military backpack, and two others were dressed up in military camouflage. There were five imps, and only one human to fight them. He may be able to run back to his sprite, of course…

Gale gripped his Party Pepper Blower and put it in his mouth. It felt...ridiculous. Could he really use this as a weapon? Well, if not, he also had his bola and his actual can of pepper spray. ...in fact, why not use one now?

Gale grabbed his bola and then, after spinning it around for a moment or two, tossed it at the imps. The handcuff attached to one of the imps hands, and another imps leg, binding the two together. While those two struggled with their bindings, the other three charged at the boy.

The boy took a step back, shook his can of pepper spray, and then sprayed one of the imps in the face once they got close enough. As the imp winced in pain, Gale kicked the imp as hard as he could. Those soccer lessons actually came in handy. The imp, which was apparently lighter than previously thought, was knocked back and landed on its rear.

One of the imps slashed at the human, being able to hit his leg and scratching it in the process. The boy winced and ran away from the imps. All five of them followed after the boy, the handcuffed two having a bit more trouble, though.

Gale ran all the way back to his house, which honestly was only a block or two away, and looked for his sprite. "Hey, sheriff! I could use some help here!" he shouted out as he banged against the house door with his fist.

The sprite went right through the door and looked around. "What seems t'be the problem here?" he asked. Gale had to gesture over to the imps that were following him and the sprite nodded. "Right, don't you worry, partner, I got this."

Suddenly, a cardinal red revolver appeared next to the sprite. It soon opened fire on the imps with amazing accuracy. The imps disappeared as soon as the bullets made contact, being replaced with different types of grist.

Gale looked at the grist on the ground and, after picking it up, nodded. "Thank you," he said as he nodded towards the sprite. "No offense, but I hope I won't need your help all the time."

Sheriffsprite (Gale just decided to name him that) nodded. "I understand," he said before getting an idea. "Say, partner, I think you can make some more stuff with that grist you got. Maybe a better weapon."

Gale nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but I wouldn't know what to make," he said with a shrug. How deadly a weapon could he make when one of the components had to be pepper spray? "You have any ideas."

"Gimme a moment," the sheriff said as he floated off. A minute or two later, he came back with a vacuum he got from inside the house. "What 'bout this? I'm sure this could make somethin' good."

Gale raised an eyebrow before just shrugging. This was his sprite. He was going to assume he knew what he was talking about. Besides, he was a sheriff! You can't say no to a sheriff! So, he captchalogued the vacuum and went through the whole alchemizing process. He didn't think this was going to make anything special, but he could at least try it.

The result was...well, it looked like a normal vacuum. Gale picked it up and examined it. It was surprisingly light, actually, but...what did it do? Running his hand along the object, he felt a small button on the handle. He pressed it and, suddenly, some pepper spray shot out of the vacuum at...a surprising force. It was enough to push Gale back a bit. He quickly pressed the button and the spray stopped.

"Okay, that could be useful," he commented as he walked back outside, his sprite standing next to the door. "Thanks for the advice. I think I can actually kill something with this." If the pepper spray doesn't work, he could just whack them with the vacuum and hopefully cause some damage. It was a wonder that his specibus actually allowed this.

Sheriffsprite nodded. "Yer welcome, partner," he said. "Now you should get goin' before the consorts get here. They're about as violent as the imps, except stronger."

Gale nodded. "Right, I'll get going. I'll see you later then, alright?" He didn't want to leave his sprite behind, but that would have to happen, it seemed.

"You'll see me again eventually, partner," the sprite said before remembering something. "Oh, actually, before you go, I need to tell you one last thing."

Once he got the boy's attention, the sprite turned up to the sky, where there were seven cardinal red circles leading further up into the sky. "Those are the seven gates. You and all you're friends are gonna have to get through those to advance. Your server player is goin' to have to build your house up to get there."

Gale nodded, glancing up at the sky to see the seven gates. Hmm, he didn't notice those before. "Where do these gates go?" he asked.

"First one leads to somewhere else in your land," the sprite said. "The second one takes you to your server player's planet, and then it keeps on goin'. You'll figure out where you are once you get through the gates."

"Okay, I'll tell him to start building my house when he gets the chance. Anything else I need to know?" The sprite shook his head and the child nodded. With a final wave goodbye, he walked away from his house, now being ready for whatever came at him. He was pretty confident with this new weapon of his. He could only hope he'd use it well when the time comes...and he had to get Phil into the game. That should be fun…

=== Gale: Be Phil


	15. Land of Oppression and Rebellion

Phil, by now, had long since finished comforting his mother after the apparently disastrous date. She wouldn't talk about it while she was crying, and by the time she recovered, she decided it was stupid and chose not to talk about it. His mother was weird like that. She never really told him about these dates. It's only if they go well that she talks about them, and that doesn't happen all that often.

The Texan sighed as he continued to look at the forums. No one has replied for at least half an hour. Though, it was understandable, really. There were meteors heading towards the earth, and he already saw quite a bit of them from out his window. The sky was pretty clear, with only a few clouds here and there, so Phil could see the meteors very clearly, and he knew just how dead he would be if he didn't get into the game.

You'd think Phil would be a bit more worried, but he didn't really seem to be. He was laying down on his bed and staring out the window. He knew that Gale would get him into the game. Why? Because Gale was told to, and Gale follows orders. He was really easy to figure out. That guy needed to get some free will. Live a little bit every now and then.

While Phil was staring out the window, there was suddenly a loud thump to his right. He turned and saw that some machine was now in his room. Oh, great...what was this? Cruxtruder? Alchemiter? Maybe Totem Lathe? He honestly wasn't paying much attention to the Communist Canadian's description. Maybe he should ask...oh, wait, he's got a message from Gale. He should have expected that.

 **serialProsecuter (SP) has begun pestering patrioticRequiem (PR)**

SP: You do know how to work these things, right?

SP: Echo explained it, I know, but I was wondering if you even bothered to read it.

PR: i read some of it and then i got bored

PR: but i think i can figure this out

SP: Oh, so you don't need my help, then?  
PR: nah i dont think so

PR: you can go away

PR: just give me what i need and ill be fine

SP: Fine. Give me a moment.

SP: Here. I already put down the Cruxtruder. The Totem Lathe's downstairs and the Alchemiter's in your mother's room.

SP: And here's your card.

SP: Have fun.

PR: yep bye

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has ceased pestering serialProsecuter (SP)**

Man, is that guy just a stick in the mud, huh? It's obvious that Phil and Gale never saw eye to eye on anything. The only reason why they can tolerate each other is because they have the same friends, but when they're talking by themselves, you can just tell they don't like each other.

Phil hopped off his bed and looked at the cruxtruder. This doesn't seem like it could do much. Turning the wheel did nothing. It wouldn't even budge, actually. He'd have to figure out how to make this work. ...maybe he should read the memo the Canadian left.

Phil grabbed his mobile phone off his nightstand and went to Pesterchum. Uh...let's see...cruxtruder...ah, okay. Hit something heavy against it. ...something heavy? How was he even supposed to pick up something heavy? Ugh...let's just look at something heavy, then. Hit pistol wasn't heavy, and shooting the machine would probably just waste bullets. Maybe he could just...hit it with a flag? Those can be heavy.

So, he pulled out some big ol' flag, which he had in his possession due to also having a flagkind specibus. It was as big as that one flag they put on the moon. Holding it now, he realized that it really wasn't that heavy, but he'd have to try it anyways. So, he swung down at the machine as hard as he could. To his surprise, the lid popped into the air and landed on the floor, followed by a few dark blue cruxite dowels and a dark blue sprite.

Phil stared at the sprite for a few moments as he tried to figure out what to do. Throw something into the sprite, right? That's what Echo had said, at the very least. So, he looked around for what he should throw into the sprite before getting an amazing idea. He had a one dollar bill with a picture of George Washington, like every one dollar bill has. He could totally have a George Washington guide. Who'd be a better guide than George Washington? So, he tossed it in there.

The result...should have been expected, honestly. It had Washington's face on it. Of course it would have that! It was awesome, too. The not so awesome thing was that he couldn't understand what ol' Georgie here was saying. Yes, he was going to call the sprite ol' Georgie. Don't complain.

Phil then, after marvelling at his creation, grabbed a totem lathe and began to walk downstairs to where the totem lathe apparently was. When he walked downstairs...the place...kind of looked like a mess. He couldn't tell what exactly happened here, but some chair was turned upside down, the couch was moved, and there were some broken bottles here and there. On the floor where the couch used to be was what looked like a trap door. Phil would have explored it if he didn't have better things to do, so he just kept moving.

Getting to the totem lathe, he put the card and the dowel where he was pretty sure they should have gone. He was right, of course, and the dowel was soon carved. He grabbed the dowel and ran off to his mother's room. He needed to get this thing in the Alchemiter! See? He knew what he was doing! He didn't need Gale to explain this to him! It was easy.

With a grin on his face, Phil put the dowel on the Alchemiter and waited for the machine to do its thing. Some weird scanner thing came out of the machine and scanned the dowel. Once the scanner went back into the machine, there was a flash as the artifact appeared on the pedestal. Before Phil could get to the artifact, he heard...crying.

The Texan hopped onto the pedestal and noticed there was some light blue baby doll on the pedestal. It was like some weird Smurf baby doll. Oh, and it was crying...and very loud, and annoying. Oh god someone destroy it!

Phil took the baby doll and tossed it against the wall. The doll bounced off the wall and landed on the floor, unharmed. The boy groaned and shot the doll, trying to get the annoying crying to stop. Come on, Phil, you don't shoot babies. You'd be an awful parent.

=== Phil: Take care of the doll.

...Phil...taking care of the doll doesn't mean shoot it. Stop that.

After unloading a few more bullets into the baby doll, Phil decided he might as well pick it up and see what he can do with it. "Okay, what does this thing want?" he muttered to himself as he awkwardly rocked it back and forth. He had no idea how to take care of a baby. ...he didn't have to change this doll's diaper, right? He was not going to do that.

"Okay, we're going to the kitchen," the boy said as his phone buzzed, notifying him of a message he received. Holding the doll with his left hand, he took his phone out with his right. Let's see...who messaged him. Oh, Gale, again. Might as well respond...agh, stupid right hand. This is why he uses his left!

SP: Are you really carrying a baby doll?

SP: That's actually somewhat amusing.

PR: how about you shut your mouth?

PR: what do i do with this thing anyways

SP: I'm sorry, are you asking for my help?

SP: I thought you didn't want that.

PR: no im just thinking out loud

SP: Do you often message people when you talk out loud?

PR: could you be quiet?  
PR: because i will block you

PR: i swear to gog

SP: ...Gog?

PR: i mean god

PR: my hand hit the wrong button

PR: now be quiet im going to take care of this baby

PR: i think you need to heat up milk or something

SP: Right, well, have fun playing with that doll of yours.

SP: Hope you get in. I don't want Lala and Alma getting crushed by meteors.

PR: yeah thanks for your concern.

SP: You're welcome.

SP: Now goodbye

PR: bye

"Man, that guy's annoying." Phil sighed as he walked into the kitchen and went to the refrigerator. RIght, there's the milk. Now he just needed a bottle. ...where were the bottles? Did they even have baby bottles?

Now Phil was rushing through the kitchen in search of baby bottles. He remembered seeing one of them around here, but he couldn't remember where exactly they were. Why did his kitchen have to be so big? It was kind of stupid, honestly. It was hard to find anything in these cupboards. No, those are coffee mugs...those are spices...those are- oh! Those are bottles! Phil quickly grabbed one and filled it up with milk before practically throwing it in the microwave and setting the timer.

Thirty seconds? Sure, that was good. The baby hadn't stopped crying, and if anything it was getting louder as the meteor got closer to the house, threatening to crush everyone in the nearby area. Obviously Phil wasn't the only one worrying about these meteors, but Phil could care less about them at the moment. He needed to get in the game first, then he can focus on getting his friends in...once he finds time for them. Hey, it's survival of the fittest at the moment. If he can't get his friends into the game, oh well.

The microwave beeped and he quickly took the bottle out of the microwave. He was about to use it to feed the baby doll, an act which he couldn't believe he was about to do at the moment, but there was suddenly a loud thump, causing the whole house to shake. A few pots and pans from the cupboards above shook off the cupboard and fell onto the boy. He winced and put both hands to his head, dropping the doll and the bottle in the process.

"Ow!" Phil exclaimed as he moved away from the cupboard, being in a whole world of pain. Ow ow ow pots and pans hurt! He leaned up against the wall for a moment and shook his head. Well, he didn't expect that to happen, but...that doesn't matter now. He removed his hands from his head and looked back to the baby doll only to hear that the crying was...dying down?

It took him a moment to register what was happening, but when he did, he noticed that...his mother was feeding the baby doll? The blonde haired woman had the doll cradled in her arms as she practically forced the bottle into it's mouth. Phil was...really confused by this.

"Mom?" he asked as he took a few steps towards his parental figure. The house was still shaking, of course. Those meteors must be getting closer. Before Phil could ask what his mother was doing, the baby stopped crying and there was a sudden blue flash, causing Phil to close his eyes. Good god, why is this game so crazy?

A few moments passed before Phil decide to open his eyes, and when he finally did, he noticed that his mother was gone, including the baby doll and the bottle. He looked around and found the house was still the way it was. His mother really was nowhere to be found.

It was then that Phil heard someone behind him speak. "Well, that sure was an exciting venture," said some high pitched voice. Phil turned around and found his sprite, except...it didn't look like how he left it.

The sprite still...kind of had the face of George Washington, if you ignored the beak that replaced his mouth and the eagle eyes. Now that the sprite was humanoid, it also had wings for arms. It was wearing a powdered wig like those people in the old colonial days, and he was wearing a general's suit.

"...Georgie, what the hell happened to you?" That was not how he had left good ol' Georgie. Of course, being mixed with an eagle was a great act of patriotism, but he would of liked it if he himself did it. "How did you turn into this?"

"Well, that is certainly a tale," the sprite said with a grin somehow spreading across his beak. Could birds even smile? How does that work? "Besides you throwing the dollar into the sprite, once your mother came in and took care of the artifact, which you should thank her for, she tossed a stuffed eagle into the sprite. She seemed to have an idea of what she was doing."

Phil nodded as he began to walk out of the kitchen, noticing the front door was wide open. Stuffed eagle? Like...taxidermied or something? Okay, that's weird. "Where is my mom, anyways?" he asked, looking back to the sprite. It seemed like he would have shrugged if the sprite was capable of doing that.

"I have no idea where she went," he answered. "All I know is that after she took care of your problems, she ran out of the house. She looked well armed, too. She had a rifle with her, so she must be prepared to fight."

Phil frowned a slightly and, after captchaloging a knife he got from one of the kitchen drawers, began to walk towards where the totem lathes were. It was time to make some cool stuff. "Well, I should go and find her then, huh?" He wanted to make sure his mom would be safe out there. Finding her was his top priority at the moment.

The sprite simply nodded and Phil soon started up the alchemizing process. It was rather tedious, honestly, considering the machines were all around the house, so he had to run around everywhere so he could alchemize stuff.

=== Phil: Alchemize Flag and Knife

Oh, yes, that was a great idea! Once Phil had finished up with the alchemizing process, he took a look at his new weapons. It was like the American flag, but added onto the red white and blue stripes were two crossed knives, with fifty stars surrounding the knives. Oh, that and there was a knife at the flag, so he could use it as a spear. That was...awesome!

The next thing he decided to combine was his phone and a watch that he had laying around his room. That basically just made an Apple Watch. Of course, Phil was wondering who the heck would want an Apple Watch as he tried to navigate the devices menus. It just seemed pointless, really.

He tried combining some more things, but found that he had run out of Grist. Ugh, there must be a way to share it between players, right? That would be useful…

"I need to go kill some things," he decided as he walked towards the front door of the house, his sprite following him there. "Hey, Georgie, where are we anyways?"

"Land of Oppression and Rebellion," the Sprite answered as Phil stepped outside and looked around. The land looked...pretty nice, honestly. It didn't seem like there were any big cities around, which was a surprise to the Texan.

"Rebellion, huh?" Didn't look like there was any rebelliions here. "Rebelling against what? Who's rebelling?"

"Well, no one currently. You're going to have to help them with that."

"But what are they rebelling against?" Phil asked once again. "I mean, I'm fine with causing one. Sounds like fun, but who are we trying to beat up?"

"Well, the story of this land might be a familiar one," the sprite said. "There is a king here who has a very unjust rule. He oppresses the people and doesn't allow free speech. The king treats his subjects poorly, but the people are too afraid to do something about it."

Phil nodded. "And how does this involve me?" the Texan asked. "I mean, yeah, it's bad, but I don't see why it's so urgent."

The sprite scoffed. "You don't think that the king will ask his guards to catch you?" he asked. "You see, the people here believe that a hero from a different land would save them. If the king gets news of you, he'll demand that you be killed."

"Okay, now I see why this involves me," he said. "So, I just gotta get enough people around to get to the king and kill him. Shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean, you did it."

"Do you think leading a revolution is easy?" When the country boy just shrugged, the sprite shook his head. "It will be much more difficult than you think. You will figure that out soon enough, but before you even think about starting a revolution, I suggest you get some better equipment."

Phil nodded. "Right, right. I'll do that. I'll find my mom, find my friends, fight some monsters with them, come back and kill the king. Like I said, it shouldn't be too hard."

"You don't seem to understand how difficult this could be." The sprite shook his head once more. "I will not try to convince you otherwise. I suggest you get moving, though. You don't want to stay in one place for too long. Word gets around fast here. I won't be able to come with you yet, but eventually I will."

"Lookin' forward to it, Georgie." Phil gave the sprite a salute and walked away from the house. "I'll make you proud, don't worry! This'll be a piece of cake for me." It shouldn't be too hard for him, right? Right.

=== Phil: Be Echo


	16. Finding Hope

Echo sighed as she continued to walk, and walk, and walk. Honestly there wasn't much to do here but walk. She was hoping she'd come across something else soon, but the only thing she could find was more and more grass. She should have just stayed at the village full of chameleons, but she probably wouldn't have gotten anything done there, though...was she getting anything done here? No, not really.

Besides going to fight the occasional imp or ogre and checking on the status of all of her fellow players, she wasn't doing much, and Echo couldn't help but think she was being a bit useless at the moment. She wasn't any closer to finishing this quest she was apparently supposed to do. And then she was supposed to beat some denizen? It just didn't make sense…

Echo sighed and was about to just give up and try to go back, but suddenly she got a notification from her pesterchum. Hmm? Someone's messaging her. It was the troll, apparently. What does he have to say.

gammaThirteen (GT) has begun trolling troubleTimes (TT)

GT: HEY, humAN.

GT: YOU looK LIke yOU'Re haVINg trOUBle.

TT: Oh, really? Is it that obvious? Well, thank you for telling me the obvious.

GT: DON't be LIKe thAT, Dude.

GT: I WAs juST GoinG TO offER You sOME helP.

TT: Help? How can you offer me help?

GT: WELl, yoU SEe, i cAN Kind OF See wHERe yoU ARe anD WHere YOU're gOINg to BE.

GT: IT'S somE WEird PROgraM I Have ON My huSKTop.

GT: SO I can TELl yoU THat tHERe's a TOWn juST Up ahEAD.

TT: So there is civilization nearby? Well, that's good to know.

TT: I don't suppose you can tell me how I'm going to finish this quest?

GT: SORry, hUMAn, buT I Can't DO That.

GT: IT'S kinD OF bluRREd.

GT: CAN't seE MUch.

TT: Well, that's a shame.

TT: I suppose I should get going, then, shouldn't I?

GT: YEAh, suRE.

TT: Then goodbye.

troubleTimes (TT) has ceased pestering gammaThirteen (GT)

Well, that was nice of him to tell her where to go, but it's really pointless to say there's a city up ahead. She wouldn't know what to actually do there. She'd just have to figure that out on her own, apparently. So, Echo began to walk straight ahead.

As Echo walked, she began to think about their current situation. Just kid's stuck in a game that seems to be...much more dangerous than previously anticipated. On top of that, all of their guardians have seemed to left. Echo had no idea where her sister had went, and she also didn't know where Hope went, but she could only hope they weren't hurt. Sure, her sister was awful at times, but they were still family.

Another thing she was wondering about was Phil's progress. Echo had talked to Gale, and he had stated that Phil was getting into the game, but when she tried to message Phil, the Texan didn't respond. Phil is kind of a brat, but he isn't one to give the silent treatment, which only made her wonder what was going on with him. Hopefully Phil was trying to get Lala into the game, and if not...this was going to be a problem.

Echo let out a groan as she continued walking, her vision directed towards the ground. Not knowing what was happening was getting her all frustrated. Right now the possibilities were almost endless. Who knows what this game was capable of, if it could send meteors at earth? As far as she knew this game could kill them in an instant. Phil may very well be dead. Predicting all the possible outcomes...it was almost enough to give her a headache.

Suddenly, Echo walked into something solid and took a step back. Thinking it was some imp, or possibly another brute, she took out her broom weapon, but she soon noticed that she had just walked into a wall. She frowned and put her broom away. She looked around and noticed the buildings that were now surrounding her. They weren't big buildings, either. They were all about the height of your average house, and they looked rather basic.

After a quick examination of the building she walked into, she noticed that it was some type of market. What would chameleons even be selling? What would they be using as a currency? Well, the currency didn't matter at the moment. Adjusting her glasses, she entered the market. She may not know the currency here, but she could at least see what they had in the store.

Once she walked in the market she took a look around, though she wouldn't be able to take a very good look. As soon as she walked in she heard someone shout out "Echo!" and she was suddenly wrapped in a hug.

Echo blinked and looked at the unexpected hugger. The hugger turned out to be Hope, who had a big smile on her face as her arms were wrapped around Echo. "I'm so glad to see you again! Thank goodness you're okay!"

"I could say the same about you," said Echo, and though she was surprised to see her friend here, her voice didn't give that away. "Where did you go? I got into the game and you disappeared, like always, and do you know where my sister is?"

"Oh, well, you see, I entered this game with you because I was in the house and I wanted to explore!" The girl chuckled. Echo knew she was always a weird one, but exploring an area like this...that was just dangerous. "And I don't know what happened to your sister, but I think she can help herself."

"First of all, this place is dangerous. Exploring was not a smart move. Second of all, I know my sister could fend for herself, but I'd like to know for sure she was alright, which is why I'm trying to find her."

"There's no time for that!" the girl grabbed Echo's hand and started to walk towards the doorway. "You got a quest to complete, right? We need to do that. Trust me, this is really important."

"More important than my sister?" Echo shook her head. "How do you even know I have a quest? Did my sprite tell you? Because last time I remembered, before I got into the game he couldn't even speak."

"Oh, I just asked around, is all," she said with a shrug and then a wink. She always acted mysterious. She never revealed her little secrets to Echo, which was very annoying for the Canadian, who wanted to know many things about her friends.

"Right, well, do you know what to do to finish this quest of mine?" Echo asked. The troll didn't know, but Hope often knew things she shouldn't know, so Echo was being a bit hopeful. No, that wasn't a pun. Stop chuckling.

"Well...I have an idea, but I don't really care to explain it to you," Hope trailed her eyes to the side and then focused on Echo once more with a smile. "If I just go and tell you, it'll ruin the effect, and then it won't work at all. Let's just say that it's probably going to take a while."

"And how long is a while?"

"About...a week or so? I don't know. It kind of depends." Even as she said this, she managed to pull Echo out of the market and began to leave the town that Echo barely got time to explore.

"Depends on what?" Echo was having a hard time keeping her footing, tripping on a few objects that were dropped on the ground.

"On how strong these monsters get, of course!" And then they left town, Hope leading the party of two. "These monsters are gonna get stronger as the game keeps going, of course. You'll just have to wait and see."

Echo just nodded, deciding not to question it. Hope probably wouldn't have told her if she asked anyways. This girl was an enigma, honestly. Echo just couldn't figure her out, which was terribly annoying.

"Have you had to fight any monsters?" the canadian asked, wondering about her friends health. Hopefully she wasn't hurt. These imps could probably cause a lot of pain, considering they're carrying guns.

Hope shook her head. "No, they just kind of ignore me," she said. "Honestly, I'm thankful for that. I don't have much to fight with. I use to have ringkind, but I don't have it anymore. I have my fists, though."

"You don't strike me as someone who's good with hand to hand combat." Echo adjusted her computer glasses as they continued to move. Where were they going? She had no idea.

"You'd be surprised by what I could do," Hope said as she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. "Oh! Look at this!" Then, just like that, Hope let go of Echo's hand and ran away.

Echo sighed and followed Hope to whatever she had found. When they had gotten to their destination, Echo found a pile of grist just...lying there. Well, if there was grist, that meant some minions died, which means…

"My sister?" Echo glanced towards Hope as she picked up the grist. Hey, she needed this stuff. It could be useful...if she got back to her house somehow. She wasn't sure how she was going to find her way back. Maybe if Alma just made a bit tower, that could work…

Hope just shrugged. "I mean, it's possible," she said. "I don't know of anyone else who would be killing these imps, except maybe those chameleons, but I don't think they're good at fighting."

Echo nodded and looked around for any more Grist. "Well, maybe there's more. My sister is skilled at leaving trails of destruction wherever she goes."

Hope giggled and nodded. "Yeah, let's go look for some more!" Once more, she grabbed Echo's hand and rushed off to find anymore grist piles. Echo knew this was going to be one big goose chase, but she was going to go through with it. At least she had Hope with her…

=== Echo: Back to being Phil


	17. Kablam!

Going back to Phil, now, and- oh, he's in the middle of a conversation. Well, let's see who he's talking to. It's not an invasion of privacy, don't worry.

 **parallelRatification (PR) has begun trolling patriotRequiem (PR)**

PR: Greetings, human!

PR: oh god this is going to get confusing

PR: What, do, you, mean?!

PR: were both called pr

PR: thats going to get confusing to tell who typed what

PR ...do, you, not, know, what, you, type?!

PR: i mean

PR: i know what i type

PR: itll just be confusing for anyone else reading this

PR: Who, would, be, reading, your, messages?!

PR: i honestly don't know

PR: but do you think you could change your name just for the moment?

PR: Look, I'm, not, going, to, do, that!

PR: My, use, of, commas, should, be, able, to, differentiate, us!

PR: and constant use of exclamation points?

PR: Exactly!

PR: And, you, don't, use, uppercase, apparently, so, that, helps!

PR: right

PR: anyways

PR: im assuming youre friends with those other people who type weirdly

PR: what do you want?

PR: I, just, noticed, that, you, are, in, the, game!

PR: I, thought, I, could, help, in, some, way!

PR: and...how are you going to help me?

PR: not saying i need help anyways

PR: but how would you do it?

PR: Well, you, know, of, the, gates, above, your, house, right?!

PR: i guess i do yeah.

PR: what about them?

PR: I'm, going, to, help, you, get, through, some, of, the, gates!

PR: Think, of, it, as, a, cheat, code!

PR: a cheat code?

PR: well getting further into the game would be nice

PR: how would you get me through the portal though

PR: youre not here

PR: No, I'm, not!

PR: But, I, have, a, code, for, something, that, can, help, you!

PR: It'll, get, you, to, your, server, player's, planet!

PR: why would i want to go to gales planet?

PR: Because, maybe, you, can, work, together!?

PR: Or, rub, the, fact, that, you, progressed, further, than, he, did, in, his, face!

PR: okay rubbing it in his face sounds fun

PR: give me the code

PR: Okay, give, me, a, moment!

PR: Kablam!

PR: ...is that the code

PR: What, else, would, it, be!?

PR: but like does it have two exclamation marks or one

PR: and what do i do with it

PR: It's, two!

PR: And, put, the, code, in, the, alchemiter!

PR: i can do that?

PR: alright im going back talk to you in a bit

PR: Goodbye!

 **parallelRatification (PR) has ceased trolling patriotRequiem (PR)**

Well, that was a slightly confusing conversation. Hopefully anyone who reads that won't get confused. Though, they probably won't. Phil doesn't even use commas! How could you confuse the two?

Anyways, Phil then turned around and headed back towards his house, looking around as he did. Right, start up a revolution and all that. He was still going to do that, but a quick pitstop at Gale's planet to rub his progress in his face wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

Phil got back to his house in a few minutes. By now the Texan had almost completely forgotten about the two that were still waiting to get into the game. This is what happens when you give Phil responsibility…

Phil stepped into his house and walked over to the alchemiter. He didn't know he could put a code into the thing, and it actually took him a few moments to figure out how to even do that, but thankfully he was able to do that. The item he was making...was big. Seriously, it costed most of his grist. He was assuming that was the whole team's grist, considering he hadn't actually killed any imps yet. At least they all share this stuff. Phil pressed the button to make the desired item. There was a blue flash and when Phil's eyes adjusted, he saw...a canon. Okay, he had to talk to comma dude about this.

PR: hey comma kid

PR: whats up with the canon

PR: You, made, it!

PR: Okay, cool!

PR: Now, get, in, it!

PR: what!?

PR: yes thats an exclamation mark

PR: because what!?

PR: Get, in, the, cannon!

PR: What's, the, problem, here?!

PR: what about me possibly dying?

PR: Hey, don't, worry, it'll, be, fine!

PR: It's, safe, for, humans!

PR: I, know, we, just, met, but, you, gotta, trust, me!

PR: ...i swear if i die ill be haunting you for the rest of your life

PR: My, life, won't, be, that, long!

PR: I, think, I, can, handle, it!

PR: thats messed up

PR: fine im getting in the cannon

Phil sighed and then, hesitantly, hopped into the canon. Oh, god, this was going to be terrible. He was going to fly into the air and just plummet back to the earth. He wasn't a cannonball!

PR: okay im in

PR: now what?

PR: I, have, the, remote!

PR: this comes with a remote?

PR: Yes!

PR: Give, me, a, moment!

Suddenly, the canon started to adjust itself, aiming higher into the sky, almost straight up. It's goal was to pass a few of the gate's and go to a specific one. It'd be difficult, but the troll that was holding the remote control was certain he'd be able to do this.

Phil, meanwhile, was honestly getting a bit nervous, but he wasn't going to show that, of course. He's a brave Texan! He's got this. A lot of people have been shot out of cannons, and they can make it! He could do this.

PR: Three!

PR: Two!

PR: One!

PR: i think i changed my mind

PR: Fire!

Before Phil could climb out of the cannon, there was a loud boom and he was suddenly flying through the air. He covered his eyes and just waited for this to be over. He flew past the first gate, just barely missing it, and was flying towards the second gate, which lead to Gale's house. The next time Phil opened his eyes, he was in a new area, but now he was falling.

Needless to say, he was screaming because of this. You would probably do the same thing if you were falling from his height, especially since there was nothing to soften his fall down below. Phil pretty much accepted that he was going to die because of this. Well, time to haunt a troll.

Though, before Phil made contact with the ground, Gale's Sheriffsprite had noticed him falling. The sprite was quick to take action and provide something to soften the boy's fall. This just happened to be a wagon full of hay, which the boy fell headfirst into.

A few moments after landing in the hay, Phil's head popped out of the pile and he spat out a bit of hay. Ugh, that's disgusting, and it still hurt...a lot. He shook his head and looked around, noticing the sprite that had saved him. When Phil saw the sprite, he couldn't hold back his laughter. What the heck? That was ridiculous!

"You shouldn't laugh at someone who saved ya, partner," the sprite said as the wagon of hay disappeared, causing Phil to fall the rest of the way to the ground. Thankfully it wasn't a great height, but it did stop his laughing.

"Well, it's not my fault you look so ridiculous," the boy commented as he dusted himself off. That's totally how you treat someone who just save your life, right? Phil then looked around. "Where am I anyways?"

"Land of Chaos and Monarchy." The sprite had what was almost a look of disgust on his face, which just made him look even more ridiculous.

"Chaos? What's so chaotic about it?" Sure, the houses around him looked pretty run down, but that could just be because this was a bad part of the city. It could be better as he kept going.

"There are no rules here. No rules equals chaos. Everyone just does what they want with no care for others. They attack each other and damage property."

"I don't see what's wrong with that, really. They're doin' what they want. They don't have restrictions. That's good, right?"

"Is that what you think?" The sprite scoffed, it's hat lowering down to cover his eyes. "My boy, you'll quickly find out that's not a good thing when you go an' explore. Just watch."

Phil shrugged. "If you say so, sheriff," he said as he took a few steps away from the red sprite. "Before I forget to ask, Gale's here, right?"

"Your server player? Well, he was here, but he left a while ago. About half an hour, I'd reckon. What's yer reason for asking?"

"Half an hour? Well, it's gonna take a while to catch up to him. Better start now." Not even bothering to answer the sheriff's question, he began to walk, waving the sprite goodbye. "Bye, you funny lookin' sheriff."

As Phil walked away from the house and onto the street, he glanced at the buildings that he passed. There was graffiti and broken windows, all those things you may find in the slums. Some houses looked better, of course. Some people tried to defend their property, and they did a pretty good job. Really, Phil wasn't sure what was wrong with this. Sure, some may get hurt, but isn't life just survival of the fittest?

Phil walked past an alleyway and suddenly heard a screech. He turned and found an imp that was pointing a rifle at him. It...looked absolutely ridiculous. It had a skull head, with the lower jaw just hanging there, limp, and it also had a ridiculous mustache above its upper jaw. It had a soldier helmet which wasn't even strapped on, and underneath that he could see what looked like some wig. Oh, and the imp was wearing some fancy looking, colonial-style suit.

Phil had to put his hand over his mouth to stop the laughter, not seeming to be worried about the rifle pointed at him. Honestly, he wasn't sure if that imp even knew how to use that gun. He wasn't good with rifles, but he had a feeling that thing either wasn't loaded or the safety was on. These imps don't seem too intelligent, from what he heard from the others, so he wouldn't be surprised.

After his laughter, which had confused the imp, died down, he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the imp. He pulled the trigger. What followed next was, of course, a loud gunshot as a bullet penetrated the imp's skeletal head. It was gone in an instant and dropped a small pile of grist. Phil just chuckled and took the grist. Good grief, how ridiculous could these things get?

The Texan decided to keep moving, and he only took a few steps forward until he noticed a wolf. This wasn't any ordinary wolf, though. This thing was on its hind legs. It was about as tall as Phil, if not a bit taller. It growled at him, but Phil only saluted the creature. Waving his hand wasn't something he did often. Saluting was his main way of greeting. It just felt cool.

"Howdy," the boy greeted as he continued moving. The wolf was still growling at him as he walked on, but didn't bother to attack. Hmm, that was strange. Though, these wolves probably haven't seen many humans, besides Gale, and that kid most likely didn't leave a good impression.

Phil looked behind him to glance at the wolf. So these guys don't like to be bossed around, huh? Maybe he could bring them back to where he came from. What was it called? He already forgot. Land of Revolution or something? He couldn't remember, but he was sure these wolf things would be useful in a revolution.

As Phil glance back at the wolf, it suddenly charged straight for him, baring it's claws. Phil wasn't exactly sure what he did to deserve getting attacked, but he wasn't going to question it. He equipped his flag, which should more or less be called a spear, considering what happened with the alchemiter, and swung the weapon at the wolf.

Phil didn't intend to hit the wolf with the sharp part of the flag, and luckily he only knocked the wolf in the side of the head with the flat part of his blade. The wolf put its paws to its head and whimpered. Phil was almost a bit upset by this, but then he remembered that this thing tried to attack him and would have probably killed him if he hadn't hit it.

"Yeah, you mutt. Get away." Phil put away his flag and pulled out his pistol once more. He was backing away noy, but he kept an eye on the wolf, making sure it didn't try anything. The somewhat trigger happy Texan then decided to fire off a warning shot. Aim next to the wolf's head, and...BANG!

The wolf yelped and then ran away from the Texan. Honestly, Phil couldn't help but feel rather proud about that. Yeah, he beat the shit outta that guy. Fun. He then turned around and walked away. Man, this was going to be a breeze. These wolves weren't much of a problem, honestly, and as long as he had ammo, he could easily take care of the imps.

So, the Texan continued on, checking the ammo in his current gun magazine. Alright, eight more bullets left. He could do some damage with that. Phil put his gun away and continued walking. He could not wait to see the look on Gale's face.

=== Phil: be Fate

* * *

 **Let me tell you something, guys, with the holidays and all, it's hard to keep a steady uploading schedule. I'm hoping to get back to normal soon and I apologize for the late chapters.**


	18. Big Behemoth Beetles

We're focusing on Fate now, who we haven't seen in awhile. Hopefully you didn't forget about this lazy fella. Anyways, Fate was currently...running from some bees. Now, that might sound pathetic, but you don't understand. These were some really big bees. Like, the size of his face. Yeah, sure...they didn't seem like they were trying to hurt him, and were more or less just curious about him, but good god bees were scary!

Fate ran across some field of flowers, probably stepping on and crushing quite a few, but he didn't care about that. He ran towards one of the nearby trees and hid behind it. Breathing heavily, the boy slid down the tree and sat down. "Holy crap…"

Okay, really, he had no idea what he was doing here. He realized that when he walked away from the house. What the heck was he supposed to do. There was no big landmarks, from what he could see. No big towers or cities. He didn't want to go back and ask his sprite about this, considering that thing kind of scares him.

As he was trying to catch his breath...something ran over to him. He honestly had no idea what this something was. It was a tiny humanoid looking thing that was completely black, and wearing a suit. Oh, he also had a weird looking colonial hat on his head. ...what the heck?

"Uh...hi?" the boy greeted with a somewhat awkward wave. Oh god, what the heck was this thing? It looked...almost like the imps, but it wasn't going to hurt him, was it? "What the heck are you?"

The creature, which was actually a Dersite, instead of answering, just hopped up and down excitedly, waving around some phone, which was flashing every so often. Okay, this thing may be taking pictures of him. That's not weird at all.

"Um...yeah, nice to meet you," he said as he stood up and stretched. Okay, yeah, just...pat the thing on the head and walk away. "You're pretty excited, but...where did you come from?"

Once again, instead of giving a verbal answer, the Dersite just ran off. One of the players! One of the players! He had to report this to the others! What would they do when they found this out, though? The Dersite honestly had no idea, but he was going to tell them anyways!

"Hey, get back here!" Fate said before standing up and running after the Dersite. What was this this, and what was it doing here? Honestly, Fate should instead ask why he was running after this thing, because he had no idea why he was. He wasn't even keeping up with this thing. It was easily outrunning him. Dang, he was slow. Either that or just out of energy. One of the two.

The Dersite ran across a field of flowers and into a small forest. Well, not really a forest. Just a bunch of trees together in a small square. ...maybe that is what a forest is. Whatever. The point is that Fate wasn't following that thing anymore. He wasn't going to catch up to that thing. Might as well give up.

Fate leaned up against one of the trees. Alright, yeah, this was pointless. He wasn't going to chase after something he obviously wasn't going to catch. Too much effort anyways...

As Fate was trying to catch his breath, he heard his computer (Hattop is probably what he should call it) beep, notifying him of a message on Pesterchum. Oh, okay, it's MD. He hasn't heard from her in a while.

 **medicalDirectory (MD) has begun pestering exaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

MD: uh...hey Fate?

MD: you there?

EE: yeah whats up?

MD: have you heard from Phil recently?

MD: he...hasnt connected to me

EE: he hasnt?

EE: i havent talked to him in a while

EE: want me to message him

MD: yes please!

EE: okay give me a moment

EE: ...yeah hes not responding

EE: i dont know whats up with that

MD: he needs to connect soon!

MD: the meteors are coming in!

EE: i know i know

EE: im sure hell connect to you eventually

EE: he wouldnt let you die im sure

MD: i dont know Fate

MD: what if something happened to him?

MD: what if he decided he didnt want to play with us?

MD: what if he wont get me in?

MD: Fate...im kind of scared :(

EE: hey calm down

EE: phil will get you in dont worry

EE: what makes you think he wont?

MD: i dont know...i just have a feeling

MD: well really a dream but its kind of the same thing

EE: oh you saw it in those weird dreams of yours?

EE: it probably wont happen then

EE: its just a dream right?

MD: yeah...i guess

MD: it just seems real

EE: dont you worry about it

EE: youll get in the game and then we can have some fun and stomp out some bad guys

MD: i guess youre right...yeah

MD: thanks for listening Fate

MD: youre the best (:

EE: talk to me when your in the game alright?

MD: okay see ya! thanks again!

 **medicalDirectory (MD) has ceased pestering exaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

Man, Lala was actually kind of nervous. That's unlike her. Fate turned off the screen and it went back into the bill of the hat. He shook his head and looked around once more. More flowers, more trees...one big flower off in the distance. Okay, that might be important. It's at least one landmark to go to. Might as well go to it.

Fate took his laser pen out of his pocket and clicked it once or twice, just because he enjoyed that satisfying clicking sound. Click click. Fate's actually been in a few fights with these imps, and he's surprised with how effective this pen was as a weapon. Apparently the pen is mightier than the sword.

Fate then began to walk towards the big flower off in the distance. He wasn't sure how important a flower could be, but he just had to hope it was important...otherwise he might have to go back to his sprite, and he really didn't want that.

Fate's walk was...long and uneventful. Well, not really long, but it felt like it. It took what? Ten minutes? It felt like a whole hour, but eventually he made it. ...the flower looked a lot bigger from a distance. It was like the Eiffel Tower or something from far away, now it was about as tall as an apartment complex. Fate just shrugged and walked around the stem, looking for anything important. He wasn't sure what would be on a stem, though.

...apparently a doorway. Really, on the stem was a door. It was made of wood, oddly enough, and the handle looked like it was just...jutting out of the stem. Fate may have just walked past it if he hadn't noticed the doorknob. He tilted his head and grabbed the doorknob. He attempted to turn it and was met with no resistance. Okay, it's unlocked, so, he opened it.

What he found was...a spiral staircase. This was a staircase up the stem of the flower. Fate couldn't help but think this was ridiculous. Like, really. This is something Tinkerbell and her fairies in Pixie Hollow might make. Well, if they were the size of a human and the flowers were huge. Or maybe Fate just shrunk when he entered this place. Considering he was already short before he entered the game, that would really suck.

Seeing that there's no other way to go, Fate began to scale the staircase. Judging by how tall the flower was, this may take a while. How many steps did this have, anyways? One...two...three...four…

...he's literally counting steps. Oh good grief. Let's just skip this before we're bored to death.

=== At the top of the flower

At the top of the flower...well, it wasn't what Fate was expecting. It looked like some kind of...hub. It was filled with small little devices, complete with flashing lights and buttons of all different colors, and Fate had no idea what these things did. He'd just have to figure that out later. He captchalogued a random button-like device and continued looking, but wouldn't find much else of interest besides the giant window.

Yeah, there was a giant window, and Fate had no idea how he didn't see that from the outside. Maybe it was just hidden or something? He wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to put too much thought into it. He should check out the view and see if he can find anything important. So, Fate glanced out the window, his hands in his pockets.

What he saw was certainly surprising. Looking out the window, he found a bunch of other flowers. Most were as tall as the flower he was currently in, but there were a few that were either bigger or smaller. That was the first surprising thing that he saw, because really, he didn't expect there to be so many huge flowers, but then he saw the giant things clinging onto the flowers, and then he got...well, not surprised. More scared.

They were beetles. Gigantic beetles, at that. Much bigger than Fate, though a lot of things here seemed to be bigger than him anyways, or at least just big in general. The beetles were multiple colors. Tan, light blue, black, green, and all the other colors of the rainbow. They were absolutely tearing up any leaves that the flowers had, and they were even burrowing holes into the stem, most likely eating up the flower from the inside. Some of the flowers around them looked pretty dead, with missing petals, leaves, and a bunch of holes in their stem.

Fate just stood there for a moment, shivering a bit as he did. Ugh, bugs. They're already gross when they're small. They're just plain disgusting when they're this big. The only thing that got Fate moving was when a couple beetles started going towards his flower, either crawling on the ground or flying towards him, and they were closing the distance rather quickly.

"Okay, time to get out of here," Fate said before running towards the door. Oh god, he's gotta walk down all these steps again. There's like five hundred here or something. He lost count at three hundred, so he didn't know for sure. What if he fell?

Fate took another look out the window and decided that it was better than being eaten. So, Fate looked back to the steps and began his long descent down. The beetles were going to get here before he got out, he was sure of it. Sometimes Fate would take two steps at a time, but considering there was no handrail or anything to keep him from falling off, he didn't do it often.

Halfway down the stairway he heard a crunching sound. He looked along the stem and noticed that there was a hole in the part of the stem that was near him, and it was just getting bigger as the beetles ate their way into the flower. Keep moving, keep moving…

It wasn't long until the beetle had made it through, though. The stem was thick, yes, but the beetle was going at it like it hadn't eaten in days. What a glutton. That thing needs to learn some manners. Anyways, the beetle bashed its head into the flower and continued to eat, trying to make the hole big enough for it's body to get through. While all of this was happening, Fate was still trying to get out, having to resist the urge to cover his eyes. He needed to see where he was going.

By the time the beetle had fit its whole body in the flower, Fate was at the bottom of the staircase, and he somehow didn't trip and fall. That was an accomplishment. Fate jumped over the last two steps. This was a bad idea. He landed wrong and fell forward with a wince. He tried to stand up, but when he applied pressure to his ankle, it hurt like crazy. He may have sprained his ankle. Bad timing…

Fate bore through the pain and limped to the door. When he opened it, he was greeted with another giant beetle that...actually screeched at him. It was high pitched and it hurt his ears. This was when he realized that he definitely screwed up. Weapon, weapon...he needed a weapon!

Pulling out his dice, which he needed to activate his modus, he maneuvered past the beetle somehow and threw his dice behind him. It'll appear back in his pocket later, thankfully. He knew that after the first time he lost his dice, and it certainly wasn't the last. He held out his hand for whatever weapon would appear. When he felt something in his hand he wrapped his hand around it and looked at it. ...it was the ink bomb he got while alchemizing. Would this even work? Only one way to find out.

Fate ran away from the flower, but only managed to get a few steps in before his ankle basically said, "I'm not doing this anymore". This was when he turned around and threw the ink bomb. Please work…please work.

The spherical object didn't hit the beetle, but landed in the doorway of the flower. A few seconds past and then it blew up, causing an explosion of blue ink. It would hit the beetle inside the flower and the one outside. Of course, it also hit Fate, because why not? It stained his clothing, which wasn't as big of a deal, but it also hit his hat. Hopefully that's not broken.

The beetles screeched as they were covered in ink, and Fate took this as a chance to run for it. Or, well, limp for it, really. So, he turned back around and ran for any place he could hide. The tree forest thingy from before was a good idea, so he ran in that direction, trying to ignore the pain in his ankle. It took a while for him to get there, but once he did he ran straight into the tree filled area. Right, okay. He...might be safe. Just...stay here for a while. Ow, his ankle hurts. That's not going to heal anytime soon.

Taking a seat, Fate put his hands over his ankle and sighed. Okay, this was going to be more difficult than he thought, because he might have to deal with those beetles as well as the imps, the ogres, the tiny energetic people, and whatever else the game had to throw at him. At least he had an objective now, and he was pretty sure this was his goal. He needed to get rid of those beetles. Easier said than done. It'd take a lot of effort, but hopefully he can do it.

Fate had half a mind to just get up and keep going, but right now his ankle was killing him, so he just decided to stay there and sit. Besides, this tree was...surprisingly comfortable. Maybe he was just tired, though...that's the most likely explanation. Well, a quick nap wouldn't hurt anyone, right? So, closing his eyes, the child slowly drifted off to dreamland.

=== Fate: Wake up

* * *

 **Another late chapter, but what else is new? Really sorry guys. I was hoping to get a chapter typed up before I posted this one, but it just couldn't wait any longer. I'm three chapters behind where I should be on the actual document considering I hadn't gotten a chance to type for a while now, but hopefully I can correct this and type some more chapters. This story's going to be my main focus for a while now. I hope you guys understand.**

 **Also, hey, this story almost has one thousand views. I know most of them are the first chapter and then people loose interest, but hey, it's still pretty cool, and more than what I expected. Thanks, guys. Glad that you enjoy this. You can expect a chapter on Sunday for once, hopefully. So...be prepared for more of this. See you guys later.**


	19. Important! Please read!

**Okay, I should've announced this. I'm updating the previous chapters before the one where we switched to third person. I am making all of them third person. I have one chapter left to go, buuut afterwards it should be good and we have a whole third person story. Hopefully that won't pull people away now. So...there may be some weird order of POV for a bit.**

 **Just thought i should announce that...so yeah. That's all. Uh...bye.**


	20. The Dream Planet

=== Fate: Wake up

Oh, Fate's not waking up anytime soon. Well, his real self isn't, anyways. His dream self was by now up and about, though. Off on Skaia's moon, Prospit. Three towers were built up, all carrying a player. At this moment, two of the three dreamers had awaken on the planet by now, Fate being the second one. The third had yet to wake up, but they will eventually.

Dream Fate woke up and blinked before looking around. Woah, okay, this room looks cool. A bit too yellow for his taste, but whatever. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Wow, he felt pretty refreshed, honestly. Like he could do anything! Though, he had no idea what to do, so there goes that idea.

This room...actually kind of looked like his own, except it wasn't as messy. There was a gamecube in the corner connected to some nice looking T.V. He definitely didn't have that in his room. There was also a few baseball posters that he also never had. This room was actually pretty awesome. It was like how he would decorate his room...if he wasn't poor. Though, you don't have to be rich to be content anyways. As long as you can make by you should be fine.

Fate hopped out of bed and took a glance out a window to see an equally yellow city. Seriously, it was as yellow as his room, and that's saying something. It was like some mustard grenade went off. Actually, no, not a mustard grenade. It was a mustard nuke. Someone nuked this place with mustard and no one bothered to clean it up.

Fate leaned a bit further out the window and noticed that his feet were actually leaving the ground. Whoah, what? Okay...that's strange, but whatever. This kind of seems like a dream, so that probably made sense. ...did this have something to do with the game? ...nah, probably not.

So, with his new flying abilities, Fate flew out of his room and looked around. Right, still yellow, and now he noticed the human looking things running around. They looked similar to that one small thing he met before he fell asleep. Well, some of them did. They were all different heights, of course. And instead of a pure black shell they were white. That's nice. They were also wearing other outfits. Some had colonial uniforms, others were wearing military gear, and other weird things that he didn't bother looking at.

Looking off in the distance, Fate saw the two other yellow towers and decided that he should explore. So he went to the one that was closer, because it was the most convenient. Were there other people in here? Maybe the other players? That'd be nice. Then he could actually talk to someone face to face. Man, that'd be awesome, actually, considering he never had that chance before.

Fate peeked into the window of the other golden tower and noticed that this was where Lala was. How did he know this? Well, the girl was sleeping in the bed, cuddling some raccoon plushy. That was actually kind of adorable. Fate chuckled as he tried to find a way to wake the girl up. Uh...he could throw something at her.

Fate flew into the room and picked up another plushy. There weren't many of them in the room, actually. Was this how her room was in real life or something? Fate would expect there to be more plushies, but whatever. So, Fate threw the plushy at the sleeping girl, hoping this would wake her up.

The plushy hit the girl straight in the face and her eyes immediately shot open, her real world self falling asleep as this happened. The girl quickly sat up and looked at Fate. "Oh my god! Fate!" She stood up and quickly hugged the boy.

Fate smiled at this and patted her on the back. "Nice to see you, too," he said as he looked around. "By the way, where are we? I kind of just...woke up here."

"Oh, we're on Prospit," the girl answered as she walked to the window and looked outside. She loved doing that. It was such an amazing view up from her tower...this whole planet was amazing. "I've woken up here a few times. I was the only player awake, but I'm glad you're here now."

Fate nodded. "Yeah, well, it's nice to see you. Didn't think I'd be able to do that." Before Lala could respond, Fate had a question. "But why did we wake up here? Is it important?"

Lala shrugged. "I mean, you can kind of see the future and stuff, I think. It might be the future, or just what could happen. I don't know, but I've spent a lot of time looking into the clouds."

"The clouds?" Fate asked as he looked out the window and up to the sky. He just noticed that the clouds weren't normal. They were showing...he didn't even know. He saw a lot of things in the clouds, such as his friends fighting monsters, one of them actually getting stabbed (Fate couldn't help but wince at that), meteors crashing down on the earth, and more things that he couldn't really catch. It was either the clouds were going by too quickly, or Fate possibly just didn't want to look at them.

"You see what I'm talking about now?" Lala asked. When Fate nodded, Lala copied the motion. "Right. I've been looking at the clouds every time I visit Prospit. I'm not sure if I like what I see in them."

Fate nodded. Right, those meteors hitting earth...that's not good. "Well, hopefully some of these things can be avoided." Honestly, Fate couldn't help but think that these things...just couldn't be avoided. Maybe it just had to happen.

Lala nodded. "Yeah, I hope so, too," she muttered with a small shake of her head. Right, maybe it can all be avoided. Maybe nothing bad would happen. They'd have a lucky game and everything would be good, or maybe that's being too hopeful. Deciding to change the subject, Lala looked at Fate. "So, you fell asleep, huh?"

Fate chuckled lightly and nodded. "Is it surprising?" he asked with a small smile. That was one way to lighten the mood.

"Oh, no, not at all. You're the one that takes power naps every few hours, after all."

"Hey, at least I'm not narcoleptic or anything."

"You're pretty close, though." She playfully hit him in the arm before giggling once more. "So, what's been happening on your planet? I want to know all about it."

As Lala sat criss cross on the floor, Fate just shrugged. "Not much happened, really. I was chased by some giant beetles and sprained my ankle, but other than that nothing happened."

"Oh, you sprained your ankle?" the girl asked with a frown. "That's not good! Hopefully it'll feel better when you wake up!"

"Maybe, I don't know." the boy shrugged once again. "I don't think injuries just heal like that, but I'm not a doctor. It takes a while, though, I know that."

"Well, a sprained ankle can last a couple days, if it's not treated for right away." Lala tapped her fingers against the ground. "Did you have anyone help you?"

Fate chuckled. "Yeah, because some giant beetles I annoyed are going to help me." He shook his head. "Either that or the giant bees are going to help me. Sure."

"Hey, you never know. Something interesting might happen. This entire game is interesting! Think of everything that's happened so far!"

"Yeah, the whole world dying, that's cool." Meteors heading towards the Earth, Fate not being able to find his father, and him spraining his ankle and possibly being chased by demon beetles. Fun. "I barely even know what I have to do. I only got some idea."

"You didn't ask your sprite thingy?" She heard Echo talk about those sprite things in her little guide she posted in the group chat. Well, it was anything far from little. Echo had gone into extensive detail on just about everything, from alchemiting items to how to prototype a sprite. It was actually sort of impressive how detailed it was, considering Echo had just started playing the game.

"Oh, god no. That thing scares me." Fate shook his head. "It's basically me, but more angry...and military, and a higher pitched voice. Like...it's like if I joined the marines when I was five years old."

"Oh, geez, that sounds fun." Lala held back a chuckle. "You should have asked him, though. I don't think he would have gotten angry at you."

"I didn't want to risk it." Fate looked around the tower. "Also, uh...not trying to be rude, but how do I get out of here?"

Lala tilted her head and pointed out the window. "Well, the window's right there. Just jump out." Man, that'd sound awful if these two couldn't fly here. Even then, telling someone to jump out a window was still awful.

"No, like, not out of your tower, which is kind of cool. You got some Skyrim alchemy stuff over there," he gestured towards a table in the corner of the room, "but I meant dreamland. Or Prospit. Whatever. How do I get out of here?"

"Oh! That's simple!" Lala clapped her hands together. "You just have to fall asleep. Shouldn't be hard for you, right?"

Fate blinked once or twice and then frowned. "Honestly...I don't feel that tired." That was actually pretty surprising. Was that because he was kind of already asleep? Or had this version of him just wake up from a super long sleep? That'd...make sense? What makes sense in a place like this?

"Oh." Lala frowned as well and looked around. "Well, we could knock you out or something, but that sounds bad."

"Knock me out? Like, roofie me or something? That doesn't sound good. Can't you just hit me over the head or something?"

"That sounds painful! I'm not going to do that!" Lala shook her head and stood up. She walked over to her alchemy table and looked around, humming to herself. "I'm sure I got something to put you to sleep, just give me a moment."

"Uh...why would you have roofie stuff on you?" That's just a bit disturbing. She doesn't use that stuff often, right? Maybe that's why his dream self was asleep for so long…

"It's called rohypnol, now stop asking questions. You want to get back to where you were, right?" Uh...no, that's not it. No, that's...she didn't know what that is. This thing's moving. Just...slowly put that back.

" Well...yeah, I guess you're right." Fate shrugged. "Fine, fine. Get your weird alchemy stuff out. I'm ready."

Lala nodded as she found the bottle of what she needed. ...why did she have a bottle of this stuff? Well, it is dreamworld. She probably has everything she wants in this room. It's like a lucid dream, you know? She can make whatever she wants? Or maybe that's not how it works. She wasn't sure. It was in there. That's all she knew. She put some of the chemical stuff on a nearby napkin and looked at Fate. "You sure about this?"

Fate nodded. "Yeah, yeah, just do it," he said. "Just put me back in my dream bed or whatever when you're done, unless I sleepwalk or something. Can that happen?"

Lala shrugged and then walked over to Fate. "I don't know, but, uh...smell this." She then shoved the napkin into his face. Fate was able to get a gooood whiff of that chemical smell. Lovely. "This is going to take a few seconds."

Fate nodded and took another big whiff of the stuff. Already he was feeling himself getting dizzy. Another whiff and he was out like a light, falling to the floor. Lala sighed and picked the boy up to carry him to his dream bed. That definitely worked, but now she was alone...she didn't even have her raccoon friend...

== In the Land of Statistics and Emotions…

* * *

 **Hey, one thousand views! Good job, guys! Thank you for staying with my story for so long! It means a whole lot. Remember, if you have anything to say or suggestions to make, please leave a review. It'd help a lot if I got some feedback. Thank you, really!**


	21. A Different Kind of Gunfight

A middle aged woman walked along the landscape, her hair moving about in the light breeze. She didn't seem to be concern about her situation. She was in a strange land with nothing but a phone and some boxing gloves, but she was oddly calm. Suddenly, her phone began to play some ridiculous ringtone. Oh, she was getting a call! She quickly accepted the call and put the phone to her head.

"Hey! How's it going?" Not only was she calm, but she sounded cheerful. You'd think that she would be at least the smallest bit worried, especially considering her little sister was somewhere out there, all alone. Well, really, she wasn't her little sister. More like adoptive daughter or something, but we'll ignore that fact.

"Yo. I'm doing fine, myself," the voice on the other line said. He seemed pretty uncaring, and had a casual tone in his voice. He didn't seem to care about his situation either. "Just killed a few weird imp things. You?"

"Oh, I just killed a few things, too!" she looked back to where she came from and noticed the long line of Grist she left behind her. Wow, that's a lot of stuff. "I'm pretty far from my house, though. I won't be able to charge my phone anytime soon."

"Is that your way of saying I shouldn't call you?" There was a chuckle from the other side of the line. "Wish I could be there with you. Don't think I'd be able to get there anytime soon, though."

"Right, well, I think I can handle myself," she said with a shrug, moving some hair out of her face. "You know just how well I can fight!"

"Oh, yeah, I know that. Just be careful. Don't go dying or anything. These things have guns, you know." That was a surprise to him. Who decided to give these things guns, anyways?

"I noticed! It's actually kind of funny. Most of them don't know how to use it. At least the imps don't. The other monsters do, though. I'm expecting a firing squad to show up soon." She giggled and shook her head.

"Come on, don't talk like that. You're actually going to make me worry about you." This was said in a joking tone, and the woman bet the man on the other side of the phone was grinning. "I'm sure you can take them, though. What are you trying to do, anyways?"

"Oh, I'm just exploring," she responded. "The chameleon things are kind of rude, but oh well. I guess that can happen sometimes. What are you doing?"

"Killing imps, leaving this grist stuff for my boy. You'd be amazed by how quickly a nunchuck can go through a bunch of imps." It was truly impressive, and unexpected.

"You'd be surprised by how hard I can punch things." She giggled once again. "Anyways, I haven't really found anything interesting. Just some stores and stuff. I don't have a lot of money, though."

"Can't you just steal that stuff, though? That's probably what I would do."

"Oh, come on, that's just rude. These little chameleon fellas work hard to put bread on the table, you know? It's endearing in a way." Besides, they were kind of cute, though they were a bit rude.

"You got chameleons over there, huh? All I see here are wolves. They're nothing but little punks, really. They try to pick fights, but they run away as soon as I hit them."

"That's because you're too cool for them, dude," the woman giggled. You wouldn't expect her to be so bubbly, considering the subject of the conversation. "They can't handle the cool dude."

"Yeah, guess you're right about that. I am pretty cool." There was a tone of cockiness in the voice as the speaker then hummed. "Maybe I should hang up. I don't want to drain your battery. Try charging it if you can, though."

"Yeah, I'll do that, don't worry. I should be getting close to the town. I'll see if they have a phone charger for sale. It's either that or I need to steal one from an imp. They may have one. Have fun with your wolves, though. Sounds exciting."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, honestly. I feel like some cool ninja warrior. I got my nunchucks and everything. Pretty sweet, you know."

The woman stuck her tongue out. "I'll stick to my fists, thank you," she said, her voice imitating that of a snobbish person. You know, someone so prim and proper that they think they're on a different level from poor people? Yeah, those stuck up people. "There's just something about punching monsters in the face that's really cool."

"And dangerous, but whatever." The speaker shrugged before clearing his throat. "Anyways, I gotta go. I see an ogre off in the distance. Going to have to take care of the big guy."

"Right. Have fun with that! Stay frosty my friend."

"Oh god, no, stop it. Just say goodbye." The voice chuckled. "See ya, compadre. You may get calls from the others, just be prepared for that. Talk to me when anything interesting happens."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later, my amigo." How many times is she going to say goodbye!? Geez. And stop calling him ridiculous names that can substitute for the word friend. That's dumb.

Thankfully, the girl hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket, so we didn't have to put up with some mushy friendship stuff. No one's here to read that! They're here for action and violence! That's why you read stories you find on the internet.

The woman continued walking, a smile quite visible on her face. She was way too bubbly and happy for this world. Something's gonna have to change that, but there wasn't even an imp in sight. No one to fight. That was honestly kind of boring.

The other boring thing was that there was no store in sight, and now not only the reader, but the woman herself was starting to get bored. Seriously, when was something going to happen? She at least wanted to punch something. Maybe an ogre or something. An ogre that wanted to stab her. That'd be fun.

Though, she didn't meet an ogre that wanted to stab her. Instead, she had found a bunch of imps. And we're not talking about five imps or anything. There were, like, ten of these guys, all holding guns, and following those ten was one big ogre, and while the imps carried rifles, this thing carried a big shotgun. Well, it wasn't going to stab her, but it might shoot her...

Honestly, this sight was enough to make the woman pause mid-step, thinking about the situation briefly. Woah, okay, that's a lot of people. Well, there's the firing squad she was waiting for. That's nice. The woman put her hand into a fist and got into a combat stance as the imps and the ogre started to shout, making a lot of ruckus. Man, that was annoying. You think these things could be a bit more quiet?

The human then quickly rushed towards the group of imps, running in a zigzag form as she did. She didn't want to get shot, so she had to move randomly. Though, a zigzag wasn't really random, which was why she did crazy moves every once and awhile to throw off her attackers. Moving to the right suddenly, jumping in the air and rolling forward were a few of her random movements.

Once close to one of the imps, the woman bought her fist down onto the creature, and it immediately turned to nothing but grist. Nice! A smile spread across her face as she looked at the other creatures, their guns all pointed at her. Oh boy. That's a lot of attention.

Thinking quickly, she rolled out of the way and hopped from one place to another, still using her method of crazy movement to distract the bad guys. She bounced right between two imps and grabbed their heads before smashing them together. Those creatures also turned into a big pile of grist. Three down already, but there's still eight of them left. The imps should go down easily enough. The woman had a feeling this was going to be fun.

The ogre was the one that would be the biggest problem for her, so, obviously, she ran straight towards the hulking beast with a shotgun. It was obviously the most sensible option. When the ogre aimed its shotgun at her, she slid underneath his legs, bullets now whizzing past her. Oh, those imps figured out how to use guns. They're not complete idiots.

The woman quickly stood up and then jumped onto the ogre, adding in a backflip for some spice. She gripped onto the creatures clothes and began to climb up to the top. It was a bit odd how good she was at fighting these things. You'd think she had done it before with her amount of skill.

Once reaching the shoulder of the ogre, she tapped her finger against its cheek. It looked at her and let out a roar, because apparently these things think that's intimidating, but the woman didn't seem to care. Instead, she leaped into the air, and when she came back down she punched the ogre in the face as hard as she could. The beast stumbled backwards and fell on its back. Once it made contact with the ground, it exploded into grist. The ogre had gone down rather easily, but the woman wouldn't complain. Seven more to go.

The rest of the imps went down pretty easily, considering they were panicking now that the big guy was dead. They were like sitting ducks...even though they were running around in a panic. Six more...five more...three more…

Two more. The woman spun around to find the last two, moving so quickly that her hair caught in her eyes. Moving her hair out of her eyes, she saw the two imps, both pointing rifles at her. She tried to move out of the way, but her reflexes were just a bit too slow. Slower than a bullet? What a shock.

While she was able to move out of the way of one bullet, the other hit her in the side. The bullet dug its way into her body and came to a halt somewhere in her body. The woman's eyes widened and she put a hand to the bullet wound. Ooooh jeez. That's not good. Okay, kill these guys...kill them!

She quickly rushed to the imps, not having the energy to bounce around. She got to the two and quickly killed them, delivering one punch to each imp. They exploded into grist, and now only the woman remained, panting heavily.

Slowly moving her hand away from her bullet wound, she saw the blood now staining her hand, and dripping onto the ground, staining the grass red. That's...definitely not good. Okay, she needs some medical help. Maybe she could get that at the next town? Only one way to find out…

The woman, after catching her breath, then continued walking. She had a hand over her wound, but even then a few drops of blood ended up dripping onto the ground, leaving a blood red trail behind the girl. Though the pain from the gunshot was just now starting to come in, the woman just sucked it up and continued walking. She wasn't going to die now...she just needed to stay hopeful...

=== In the Land of Chaos and Monarchy…

* * *

 **More of an action-y chapter, I know, but it holds relevance. Not every chapter's going to be non-stop action, obviously. There's some bits thrown in there that aren't. Just, uh...bear with me, please. Thank you for bearing with me and thank you for getting this far! You're the best.**


	22. Unwanted Company

Walking through a vandalized section of the city was Gale, keeping an eye out for any of the wolves. While the wolves didn't give him much trouble, he still wanted to be alert. You never know when those wolves decide that you need to die. For no reason, may he add. It was pretty stupid, honestly. She couldn't wait for this place to get in order.

Suddenly, Gale's headphones beeped and a screen popped in front of his eyes, the screen showing his pesterchum application. His eyes scanned the screen as he continued walking. Oh, Phil was messaging him. This was not going to be pleasant.

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has begun pestering serialProsecutor (SP)**

PR: dude this place is huge

PR: where the hell are you?

SP: What do you mean where the hell am I?

SP: I'm on my planet.

PR: yeah i know that

PR: im there too

SP: Wait, what?

SP: You're here?

SP: Where the heck are you?

PR: i think i asked first

PR: but i think im in

PR: like

PR: wolf new york or something

PR: i had a nice chat with your sheriff

PR: he looks like an idiot

SP: Hey, don't make fun of the sheriff.

SP: He's actually a pretty helpful guide.

PR: hey im not going to make fun of a fellow southerner

PR: well not much at least

PR: i mean really whatd you throw into that thing?

SP:I threw in one of my dads stupid masks

PR: oh thats nice

PR: and were you the one that gave these imp guns?

PR: that could kill someone y'know

SP: I didn't throw a gun in the sprite, no. I honestly thought you did that.

PR: no way man

PR: not giving up my gun for anything

SP: Right, well, get off my land.

PR: excuse me?

PR: i dont think this is your land

PR: this doesnt belong to anyone at the moment

PR: now tell me where you are so i can find you

SP: It's not like I know where I am.

SP: Somewhere north of…

SP: Did you really call that Wolf New York?

PR: well what would you call it?

SP: I don't know.

SP: Wolf Detroit?

PR: i dont know many bad cities

PR: anyways im going to try and find you

PR: and then we can work together or something

SP: You working with someone? Wow, it's like the world's going to end again.

PR: dude just shut up

PR: and stay where you are

PR: because im coming

PR: ...are you actually out of the city?

SP: At the very edge of it.

SP: I'll look at some stores.

SP: Message me when you get there.

SP: Bye.

 **serialProsecutor (SP) has ceased pestering patriotRequiem (PR)**

He's here. God dammit he's here. That idiot is here on Gale's planet, and he was almost certain that idiot was going to ruin everything. In a brief episode of anger, Gale kicked a nearby can that he was just standing next to. The can flew into the air and bonked a little wolf, presumably a child, on the head.

The wolf whimpered and grabbed its head, crouching down a bit. Gale noticed the little consort child and quickly rushed over to it. "Hey, hey, calm down," he muttered. Not only did he not mean to hit the thing, but he was also pretty sure that if the thing kept whining it was going to attract other wolves.

The little pup backed away at first, but then Gale began to gently pat the wolf on the head, muttering that it was going to be okay and how he didn't mean it. Kind of like what you'd do to calm down a small child. Slowly the whimpering stopped, but the pup didn't look up at Gale.

"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you," the boy said as he looked around. Uh...there was no one nearby, and this wolf didn't have a collar, though none of the wolves seemed to have a collar, anyways. Who did this pup belong to? Were its parents even here? "Look, uh...do you have a name?"

Of course, the wolf couldn't speak English, so it just responded with a bark. Gale sighed and shook his head. "Right, whatever. I'll just give you a name. You're going to be...Yipp."

It was an awful name, yes, but when the pup heard it, its ears perked up and it nodded energetically. It seemed to like that name quite a bit. Gale smiled and nodded. "Right, well, sorry, Yipp. I didn't mean to hit you."

Gale, who had to crouch slightly to be more level with the pup, then stood up straight and looked around. There had to be a store around here somewhere. He got some money from killing a few imps, and protecting some wolves from some other, more aggressive wolves, so maybe he could get something.

"Hey, let's go get you some candy." He gestured for the pup to follow and then walked down the street, the pup understanding and quickly following after him, letting out a few barks in the process.

With the pup following him, Gale was even more cautious about walking the streets of this lawless town. He had what was probably a child with him, and he wasn't going to let these other wolves hurt it. Yipp was away from...probably a pack, if these things act like actual wolves, and hopefully they do, or else things may get even more confusing.

It didn't take long to find a store, thankfully and Gale quickly led the pup inside. This building, unlike the others around it, didn't look vandalized. It actually looked kind of nice. There were no broken windows or graffiti on the walls. Gale had to wonder what the owner did to keep it looking like this. Probably a lot…

Gale entered the store and immediately a few wolves looked at his and eyed him, sniffing the air curiously. The boy couldn't tell if they were just trying to figure out who he was or how he tasted. He waved at them and then walked over to the candy aisle.

The candy aisle...wasn't what he was expecting. Instead of finding things like M&Ms or Skittles, he found pieces of steak and bones that looked like...they were made out of candy? There was no chocolate in the aisle either, of course, though Gale didn't really like that. Some chocolate would be good right about now, but considering that stuff is poisonous to dogs, it makes sense that they wouldn't sell it.

Gale grabbed a few rock candy bones (flavors include strawberry, jerky and haggis) and walked over to the check out. He was surprised wolves were able to have a system like this. Though, no laws doesn't mean everything's in chaos. Some people give themselves rules to follow, and the owners of this store seemed to have done just that.

After getting the bones checked out, and giving the wolf the right amount of boondollars, he tossed the jerky flavored bone to Yipp and then walked out. The pup followed, of course, but now it was also busy gnawing on a bone. That was nice.

Suddenly, Gale's headphones gave another notification and the screen popped up in front of his eyes. He really needed to fix that. This thing can't just go popping out whenever he gets a message. Whatever. He has to read something. It's from Phil again. It was a simple message. All it said was, "im here" and then some street name.

Gale looked at the closest street sign and saw he was on the same street. Right, time for a real unpleasant meeting. Gale walked down the road, mentally preparing himself as he did. This guy was going to annoy him to no end, he can feel it. He already had an idea how this was going to down. Phil was either going to leave, or follow him but not help at all.

After a couple minutes of walking down the street, he noticed the kid. He was looking at his phone, not even bothering to look around for Gale. It was nice to know that he cared. Gale sighed and walked over to Phil before tapping him on the shoulder.

Phil looked up from his phone and turned around, taking a quick step back in case it was another wolf. Then, he looked down at Gale and grinned. "Howdy," he greeted.

Also, when I say look down at Gale, I quite literally mean look down at him. Gale wasn't gifted when it came to height, and though he was thirteen, and quickly closing in on fourteen, he was only four feet and nine inches. Phil was fifteen, having his fifteenth birthday about two months ago, and he stood at five feet and six inches. The height difference was very noticeable. "I expected you to be taller, if I'm goin' to be honest."

"And I expected you to be shorter," Gale replied as he crossed his arms. Was this kid trying to make fun of his height? That's wonderful. "Instead you're...five foot six inches of pure annoying."

"Wow, good guess." Phill chuckled and patted Gale on the head, and Gale quickly knocked away the blonde's hand after he did so. "And you're four feet and five inches of boring."

"I'm four feet and nine inches," Gale said before shaking his head. "Why did you want to talk to me, anyways?"

"Well, y'see, partner," the Texan put his arm on top of the shorter ones head, using him as an armrest. Though Gale tried to hit his arm away, Phil didn't budge. "I wanted to come to this here planet o' yours to rub the progress I made in your face, but now I don't think I can get back. So I reckoned I could just go ahead and help you out with...whatever it is you're doing."

"And by help you mean that you'll just follow me and not do anything useful?"

Phil pretended to look offended soon after. "Wow, that hurts. It hurts right here." He patted his chest where his heart would be. "C'mon, now, I'll help you out. We gotta work together to survive this, right?"

"Yes, we do," Gale muttered. "And if you are willing to work with me, I'd be willing to try and not be so annoyed when you open your mouth to say something."

"It's the accent that annoys you, isn't it?" He chuckled and took his arm off of the boy. "Anyways, I think we should get goin'. I didn't make a lot of friends while walking over here. I don't think a lot of people here like me."

"The wolves here really don't like anyone," Gale said as he began walking to the end of the town. He wouldn't get anything done here. "And how many of them did you decide to beat up on the way over here?"

"Like, ten or something." When Gale looked back at him, Phil shrugged. "Hey, it was self defense. They were lookin' at me funny. Looks can kill. You know the old sayin'."

"It's if looks could kill, not that they do kill." Gale shook his head. "You are an awful person."

"Hey, it's either that or I'm dead. Which one do you want?"

"You want me to answer that honestly?" You could tell that Gale was already annoyed, and Phil was loving every moment of it. It was fun to annoy the kid. "Let's just keep going."

"Right, you're the boss, partner," the southerner said, bringing his accent to the extreme. Then the two set off, with the little wolf pup Yipp following them. It was a surprise that Phil didn't ask any question about the pup, but oh well. Honestly, Phil was probably having too much fun annoying Gale to care. Gale just shook his head and walked away from the city in silence, the Texan following close behind.

=== Gale: Be Fate


	23. Unfortunate Losses

After that meetup with Lala on the dream planet Prospit, and after Lala knocked him out to make him fall asleep, the other Fate's eyes opened. His real self was still on his planet, and his ankle...well, it wasn't as bad now, but it still hurt, and he was sure it was just going to hurt even more if he bothered to get up.

The first thing that Fate noticed when he woke up, besides the pain in his ankle, was the giant bee that was at his feet. It was just sitting there, watching him sleep, like some creepy stalker bug. Stalker bees...that's creepy.

Fate's eyes widened and he scooted back, but the bee didn't try to attack, or even fly away. Instead, it dropped a jar of...was that honey? The bee just dropped a jar of honey and rolled it to him. Fate blinked and slowly picked it up. "Uh...thanks."

The bee nodded, because bees can apparently do that here, and flew off. Fate watched the insect fly off for a few moments before looking at the jar of honey. Last time he checked, bees didn't give people their honey, but he probably shouldn't complain. Honey tasted good.

Fate inspected the jar for a few moments before looking up into the sky. He noticed that the sun was starting to set and he sighed. Right, night time was going to come soon. Walking around in the forest in the dark didn't sound pleasant, and add the giant bees and killer beetles into the mix and you got what seems like the idea for a bad horror movie.

Was it getting dark for the others, too? Or did every planet have their own sun or something? ...that didn't seem likely. Okay, no, it was going to be night time for everyone soon enough. Hopefully everyone found a safe place to sleep. Fate definitely knew how important sleep was, which was why he did it so often. Well, actually, he just did that because he was lazy, but we'll ignore that.

Fate then decided to open up the jar of honey. He stared into the jar, honestly expecting smaller bees to fly out of the jar, but instead all he found was honey. Huh, alright then. Fate put his finger in, scooping out a bit of honey. He put his finger in his mouth and licked off the honey. It was actually...pretty good. Those bees sure know how to make honey.

=== Fate: Feast on the honey

Yes, that's a perfect idea. So, Fate continued to scoop out the honey and put it in his mouth. It was actually really delicious. He almost couldn't get enough of it. Almost. He stopped when he ate about half of the jar. It went by surprisingly quickly, and when Fate noticed this he frowned. Well, that sucked. He should go and find more.

Slowly, Fate stood up, making sure to not apply much pressure to his sprained ankle. This was going to hurt quite a bit...maybe staying here was a good idea. Fate sighed and leaned up against the tree. Staying here wasn't going to do him any good, and if he just kept staying in this forest, he wasn't going to get anything done. He needed to do something, but...so much effort.

After a brief mental war with his own mind, Fate decided to keep moving. Yeah, staying here wasn't going to do much for him. He may as well keep moving, otherwise he'd get nothing done, and those beetles would probably get to him if he didn't keep moving. He doubted he had a good reputation among those giant insects now.

Fate then began to limp out of the forest, looking around as he did. He noticed that in the fields of small flowers, and near the super tall, eaten up flowers, there were little lights, blinking on and off as the sun was setting. They were fireflies, and like every other insect here, they were gigantic. Fate could only see them because of the light the setting sun gave off. If it was night time, he wouldn't be able to see them at all. At least, that's what he thought.

The Floridian quickly decided he was going to keep his distance as he limped away towards the bigger flowers. These things had to be important, he just knew it. Why else would they be here if they weren't important? Maybe people lived in them or something? He did find devices inside the flower, but he had no idea what they were used for. He'd have to figure that out later…

After a while of limping around his planet, maybe half an hour or so, his hattop gave him a notification, a screen dropping down in front of his eyes. It was his pesterchum, and someone had just sent him a message. It was Lala again, apparently.

 **medicalDirectory (MD) has begun pestering exaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

MD: Fate

MD: im getting scared

MD: really scared

EE: whats wrong?

MD: the meteors are getting really close

MD: and i dont think Phil has even connected

MD: he hasnt even been talking to me

MD: why?

EE: i dont know why phil does half the things he does

EE: hes probably just trying to scare you

EE: hes going to come in at the last minute and save the day or something

MD: no! thats not it!

MD: he wouldnt have enough time even if he connected!

MD: its really close

MD: i...i dont want to die Fate

MD: :(

EE: hey hey calm down

EE: youre not going to die

EE: just wait out a little longer

MD: i dont have time!

MD: we dont have time!

MD: Almas not in the game either!

MD: she hasnt responded to me since fifteen minutes ago

MD: and ive been spamming her with messages

EE: look uh...ill message phil and see whats taking him alright?

MD: okay…

MD: my raccoon friend is helping

MD: he crushed a few meteors but i think hes getting annoyed

EE: uh right because raccoons crush meteors

EE: give me a moment

Fate, who had gotten to one of the bigger, already destroyed flowers, leaned up against the giant stem and attempted to message Phil. It...wasn't working. He spammed the guy with messages, too. Okay, now he actually was getting worried. Phil wasn't answering at all, and he wasn't sure if the guy was ignoring him or if he was actually occupied with something, or worse. Why does Phil have to be so unpredictable?

Okay, check Alma. Maybe she's actually fine. Maybe she can get Lala into the game, and then they can all just...enjoy a game. As much as you can enjoy a game like this. Of course, it didn't take long for Fate to realize that Alma wasn't responding either, and that just made him even more nervous, almost panicking, even. This was not good! None of this was good!

Just as Fate was starting to freak out, he got a message from Lala again. Oh god, okay, what does she want? Hopefully it isn't anything else that'll freak him out. Hopefully she'll be fine. Her magical raccoon friend or whatever will help her and everything will be fine…

MD: Fate…

EE: okay hes not actually repsonding

EE: responding

EE: and alma isnt either

MD: yeah…

EE: but hey maybe itll be fine

EE: i mean maybe we can find a way to get you out of there

EE: go to the dream planet or something maybe thatll help

MD: that wont work…

EE: okay well maybe your raccoon friend can help out right?

EE: you said he crushed a few meteors he can do that again right?

EE: please say yes

MD: Fate…

EE: what?

EE: what is it?

MD: my raccoon left…

MD: he just...got up and left.

MD: raccoons aren't really loyal

MD: the meteors are getting closer

MD: i dont think im going to make it

MD: im sorry…

EE: no no no

EE: youre going to make it

EE: i swear to god you will

EE: come on stay with me

EE: ...hello?

EE: ...lala?

EE: ...okay.

EE: goodbye…i guess...

Fate shook his head and grabbed the bill of his hat, almost throwing it onto the ground. His breathing was getting shallower and his eyes were beginning to water.. Did...did that actually happen? It actually happened, didn't it? Holy crap...she's dead. She has to be. She's not responding at all! She always responds! No matter how busy she is. She always listens and...oh god…

As Fate's hand shook slightly and a few tears ran down his face, he just remembered something. This...this was all Phil's fault. This was his fault! It's his fault that Lala and Alma are dead! He killed two of his friends, and Fate's going to make him perfectly aware of what he's done. Fate loosened his grip on his hat and then brought up his chat log with Phil.

When was the last time they really spoke, anyways? Like, considering they never really talked in the group chat. Fate couldn't even remember what that conversation was about. Probably something stupid like politics and gun control, two subjects that Phil really likes to talk about. How Southern can that guy get? Whatever. Fate's going to give him a piece of his mind. Caps lock is on. Let's do this.

=== Fate: Be Phil


	24. White Lies Don't Hurt, Right?

Phil was currently walking with his, er...companion, Gale. They had left Wolf New York (or Wolf Detroit. Whatever) about half an hour ago, but it felt like a pretty long time for Phil, who often grew impatient. The highlight of the journey so far was killing a couple of imps, and even then that was really easy. All it took was a couple shots to the head from Phil, and Gale didn't even do anything due to how quick Phil was to pull out his gun.

Phil yawned and looked at Gale. "You gettin' tired?" the Texan asked as he continued walking. Communication between the two had been scarce, and Phil was starting to find this whole thing pretty boring. Seriously, he was supposed to be taunting this kid, but he wasn't even speaking to him. That wasn't any fun.

The boy shrugged. "I'm not really tired. What about you?" He glanced behind him at Phil. Even though Phil wouldn't admit it, that stare was almost unnerving. The kid wasn't that intimidating, most likely due to his height, but he had a stare that could give an interrogator a run for his money.

"Well, walkin' around and beatin' up wolves gets a bit tiring," Phil answered. "How 'bout we stop somewhere and get some sleep. I think it's gettin' late, anyways."

"What time is it, actually?" Gale asked, looking in front of him once more. He was obviously on the lookout for any wolves and imps. Considering those things had guns, any one of them could kill the two humans at a distance, so they had to be alert.

Phil shrugged and pulled out his phone before turning it on. "It's almost nine o'clock," the southerner said. He was about to put his phone away when he noticed he was getting pesterchum notifications. He turned off notifications off long ago, when Echo was just blabbing on and on about game mechanics. Apparently he forgot to turn them back on, and someone was yelling at him. All caps and everything. "Hey, gimme a moment. Gotta look at somethin'."

With a nod from the shorter one of the two, Phil looked at his pesterchum and looked to see who was screaming at him. He was surprised to find out it was Fate. He had never actually seen Fate use the caps lock before. Like, that guy almost always types in lower case. Kind of like Phil, actually. It was weird seeing him type in all caps.

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has begun pestering patriotRequiem (PR)**

EE: PHIL!

EE: YOU SON OF A BITCH

EE: AND OTHER INSULTS!

EE: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUVE DONE?!

EE: DO YOU?!

EE: MAYBE YOU DONT EVEN CARE

EE: DO YOU EVEN CARE?!

PR: you need to calm down man

PR: youre typing like alma does when shes angry

PR: or panicked or something

PR: what the hell are you even talking about

EE: OH DONT ACT LIKE YOU DONT KNOW!

EE: YOU HAVE TO HAVE KNOWN WHAT YOU DID!

EE: IM SURPRISED THAT YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO BRING UP ALMA

PR: okay dude i have no idea what youre talking about

PR: tell me what youre going on about

EE: BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID INDEPENDENT ATTITUDE

EE: ALMA AND LALA ARE DEAD!

PR: wait...theyre dead?

PR: like...not coming back or anything?

PR: hows this my fault?

EE: YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO GET LALA INTO THE GAME

EE: REMEMBER!?

PR: ...well now i do.

EE: YOU DONT EVEN CARE DO YOU?

PR: no i do care!

PR: i just...i dont know what to say?

PR: i mean...how do you react to something like this?

EE: ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME YOU DIDNT KNOW?

PR: yes i am

PR: and turn off the caps lock

EE: I THINK MY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK AT THE MOMENT

EE: BESIDES IM STILL ANGRY AT YOU!

EE: TWO OF MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!

PR: hey they were my friends too

PR: i care about them as much as you.

EE: WELL IT DOESNT SOUND LIKE IT!

EE: YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON YOU KNOW THAT?

EE: I CANT BELIEVE ANYONE COULD PUT UP WITH YOU

PR: dude just calm down for a second

PR: turn off the caps lock if you can

PR: and just take a nap or something to calm down.

EE: I WILL NOT TAKE A NAP! I AM NOT THROUGH WITH YOU

EE: AND IF YOU THINK IM GOING TO PUT UP WITH THIS THEN YOURE WRONG MISTER!

PR: im leaving

EE: OH NO YOURE NOT

EE: I WILL KEEP MESSAGING YOU!

PR: no you wont

PR: 'cause youre blocked

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has blocked exaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

Phil took a deep breath and exhaled before putting his phone in his pocket. Man, okay, that was...that was unexpected. Alma and Lala were dead? That...really wasn't good. He didn't see how it was his fault, though. They could have messaged Gale or something and have him tell him. Not his fault, no. Not his fault…

"You okay there?" Phil blinked and looked up and noticed that Gale was staring at him. He was a couple steps away from him, and Phil realized that he had stopped walking while reading all of Fate's text messages.

Phil stared at Gale for a few moments, quickly trying to figure out what he should do. Really, there was only two options. Either tell Gale what happened, and probably have the kid be pissed at him, or tell him that it was nothing and just keep going with...whatever they were doing. Maybe he should just tell him and try to clear everything up. Explained why everything got so screwed up and hope things get back to the way they were. It'd probably clear up his mind...

"It was nothing." Phil didn't even feel all that guilty anyways. He can clear everything up later. It wasn't his fault after all. Sure, Lala might be gone, and honestly she was one of the only people he actually cared about, besides his mother, but what was one loss going to do to him? Not much. He still had his mother, after all…wherever she was...

Gale shrugged. The boy obviously didn't want anything to do with Phil's personal problems. He could barely stand the guy normally. Getting dragged into his drama wouldn't help in the slightest. "Right, so you wanted to fall asleep, right?"

Phil nodded. "Yeah, gettin' some rest would be nice," the Texan answered as he looked around. There wasn't many places he'd deem safe, if he was going to be honest. They were mostly out in the open, where any imps could find them.

"Well, I guess we could sleep right here." The shorter of the two glanced around, his eyes narrowing in thought. If they could just take turns as lookouts, then they could keep their eyes open for imps...or wolves, or anything else. Why did everything here want to kill them, anyways?

"I don't think that's the best idea," Phil said as he continued walking. He's read enough books, or at least heard enough people talk about books, to know where this was going. Gale was going to have him be a lookout for a while, and then they'd switch. Not only did Phil not want to be a lookout, but it would probably just end up with them getting shot, or eaten, or something like that.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Gale asked as he continued walking, having to pick up the pace a small bit to catch up to Phil. Gale yawned and stretched. Even though he didn't really want to admit it, he was getting pretty tired himself. Hey, he was the type of kid that went to bed at nine. This was his bedtime, and he can't function for long afterwards.

"Let's just find some other place. Sleepin' out here doesn't sound safe. I'm not sure 'bout you, but I don't wanna get eaten in my sleep."

"Fine, fine, we'll keep walking," the brown haired boy shook his head as he continued to follow the blonde, still alert to his surroundings. Well, as alert as you can be when your body is telling you to go to sleep.

After a while longer of walking, maybe ten or twenty minutes, the two kids came across a small house. Really, it didn't even look like a house. It was more like a small shack that may be able to house a person. Phil walked over to the shack and knock on the door, which was barely staying on its hinges.

When Phil knocked on the door, it slowly creaked open due to the force applied to it. That's lovely. The door couldn't even stay closed. Phil took a quick glance inside before looking back at Gale. "Wanna spend the night here?"

"In this place?" The boy asked in response. "We can't just sleep here. What if someone actually lives in there? We could be killed at worse, or just chased off, if we're lucky."

"What's life without a few chances?" Phil asked as he pulled out his gun and stepped inside, ignoring Gale's protests about the matter. "Really, if anyone's in here, I can just shoot them."

Gale, who quickly realized that arguing with Phil was going to get him nowhere, sighed and stepped inside before looking around. It was...pretty dark in the building, considering the windows were boarded shut, but from what he could see...the place looked like a mess. "It kind of looks like a place where you'd make drugs."

"I don't think this is what those places look like." The blonde then took out his phone and turned on the flashlight function. He moved the light around the room and noticed that the whole place was a mess, but there was something that really caught his eye.

Up against the wall, Phil noticed many different kind of weapons on a weapon rack. There weren't any guns, unfortunately, but there were things such as swords, spears, maces and daggers. Phil frowned and took a few steps towards the weapons. "Wish I could use these things."

"Yeah, because that's what you need; more weapons." Gale rolled his eyes and yawned once more. He was really getting tired now. "You think anyone's home?"

Phil shook his head. "Nope, not really," he said. "I'm sure that if someone was home this place would be in a better shape, and the door wouldn't be fallin' off its hinges."

Gale nodded. "Right, well, let's find the bedroom," he said as he then walked further into the house. Phil followed him, shining his flashlight down the small hallway. At the end of the hallway there was a small room that was supposed to serve as the bedroom. Thankfully, it wasn't just a dog bed in the corner, like Phil somewhat expected. There was a human bed...and then there was also a dog bed in the corner.

"What do you think that's for?" Phil shined his flashlight at the small, red, dog bed. "They already got a bed."

"I'm guessing its for a puppy," the shorter one said as he looked behind him. "Speaking of puppy...Yipp's not here."

"You mean that wolf pup o' yours?" Phil asked before chuckling. "Maybe it got tired of dealing with you. I wouldn't blame him, really."

Gale shook his head and then whistled for the pup. It was a taxi cab whistle that'd make even the most seasoned New York taxi caller proud, and maybe even shed a tear. What was really impressive though was that the kid wasn't even from New York. Soon afterwards, the wolf pup came bounding into the house and towards Gale. Gale smiled, patted the pup on the head, and then gestured to the dog bed.

It was a wordless exchange, but Yipp seemed to understand it. He walked over to the bed, got himself comfortable, and then curled up into a ball and fell asleep. It was weird seeing something humanoid do that.

"Well, that's settled," Phil said before looking at the bed. There was only one of them, and even then it looked like it could barely fit one person. "You're sleeping on the floor, by the way."

"Wait, what?" Gale looked at Phil, a frown on his face. "Why do I have to sleep on the floor?"

"Because this bed's too small for the both of us, and even if it was I wouldn't be sharin' a bed with you. Too gay for me. I'm older, so I sleep on the bed."

"So you sleep on the bed because you're the oldest? That's not fair! I can't control when I was born."

"Sorry, kid, those are the rules," Phil said as he began to climb into bed. It wasn't even all that comfortable, but it was probably better than sleeping on the floor. Phil turned off his flashlight and set his phone on the nearby nightstand. Why would a wolf person need this stuff? Eh, whatever. "You can go snuggle up with your kid over there."

Gale groaned and sat against the wall, knowing that arguing with Phil, like usual, would be pointless. Phil was going to have things his way. That was just how it went. Gale would love to teach that guy a lesson….

Gale's eyes trailed over to the nightstand, which he could barely make out in the darkness. He inched his way over and felt around it until his hand met Phil's phone. He grabbed it and turned it on, squinting slightly due to the sudden light. Time to guess this guy's password...America? No, that's not it...this may take a while, but it'd be nice to see what this guy had on his phone...

== The next morning…


	25. Strike Two

Phil woke up rather slowly. With no alarm or anything to wake him up, he was a late riser. Although he didn't know it, he woke up at about nine in the morning, about three hours after his partner had woke up. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at the dog bed, finding...nothing there.

Phil blinked and sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he did so. He reached for his phone on the nightstand, but he couldn't find it. His hand went all over the surface of the nightstand, but he couldn't find his phone. Wait...did Gale really take his phone?

"Son of a bitch…" Phil muttered before getting out of bed, still in a sleepy state, ran towards the exit of the house. He almost ran into the wall on his way out, being incredibly drowsy, and hungry, but he'd take care of his hunger later. Phil got out of the house and ran down the road they were walking down yesterday. He wasn't sure why there were roads, considering there wasn't a single car in sight, but whatever. He needed to find this kid.

Phil, while running, was trying to think about what would make this kid just run off like that. With his phone, no less. ...did Gale read his conversation with Fate? If so, then he would have some explaining to do. Explain it wasn't his fault. He wasn't the one that killed them. It was their fault. Heh, like that'd go well with Gale...

Phil had no idea how long he was running, and he was surprised he was able to run so fast without passing out. Actually, he was about to fall down on the ground when he stopped running and looked around. At first, all he saw was more road, but then he heard something. It was a bark. Maybe it was Yipp?

Taking a chance, the Texan let out a whistle to try and attract the dog. No, he didn't have nearly as good of a taxi whistle as Gale, but it was hopefully enough. While he didn't see a dog running towards him, he definitely heard barking. He was close! That was enough to put a second wind in him as he started running once again. His legs were aching and his chest was hurting, but he was so close!

Give it a few more minutes of running, and he found who he was looking for. The boy, unlike Phil, was taking a leisurely stroll down the road. He wasn't running or anything. Phil was...honestly kind of annoyed by that. He had to run all the way here, and the kid was just walking down the street like he was taking a relaxing walk around the block.

"There you are," Phil said in between breaths. He tried to sound annoyed, angered, or something to intimidate the kid, but he was too out of breath to put that amount of emotion in his voice. Okay, just calm down and catch your breath. Phil slowed down to a walk as he quickly caught up to the boy. "I was...lookin' for ya, kid."

Gale stayed silent, however. He kept moving forward. There was no falter in his stride as he continued moving, the dog happily following behind the human, it's tail wagging like it's life depended on it.

"How 'bout you tell me why you went ahead and ran off?" Phil asked as he waved his hand across Gale's face. "And took my phone with ya. I didn't think you'd be one to steal."

"And I didn't think you'd be one to kill," the shorter one of the two said in a deadpan tone, still not bothering to look at the blonde. His voice was cold and void of emotion. It didn't have any anger in it, as Gale was trying his best to hold it back. It was actually somewhat disturbing. Phil was expecting him to be angry. Why wasn't he angry? Did he not care? No...he obviously cared. What was wrong with this kid?

"So, you read those messages, huh?" the Texan sighed and shook his head. Right, explaining. He'd have to do that. "Look, before you continue to yap, I just want to say-"

"I've never seen Fate use caps lock," the child said, now glancing at Phil. Still no emotion in his face. Phil was getting angry. Show some emotion! Get angry, start crying! Do something to show you're capable of those things called emotions! "He's really angry at you. Though, I wouldn't blame him, after what you did."

"Oh, come on, it wasn't my fault," Phil said, trying to defend himself. He wasn't picking his words carefully. Though, since when had he thought carefully about anything. "If anything it was their fault and not mine."

"It's their fault that you didn't get them into the game?" Phil had finally noticed the can of pepper spray that Gale had in his hand. The boy was squeezing it tightly, his knuckles turning white. Phil quickly took a step back, not wanting to get blasted with pepper. He never had any experience with that, but he was sure it hurt. "How does that work?"

"Look, if they wanted me to get them into the game, they could have just messages me. I could have gotten Lala into the game, then she could get the other girl in."

"The other girl has a name, you know. It's Alma." The other girl? How disrespectful was this guy? He never called the group by their names. It was so disrespectful, and every time the southerner called him "Kid", Gale wanted to punch him in the face. "And are you sure you wouldn't have blocked them, too?"

"I only blocked that guy because he wouldn't leave me alone," the blonde said. Seriously, if he didn't block Fate his phone would be buzzing all night, giving him notification after notification. He was doing both of them a favor blocking the guy.

"Why didn't you do it?" It was a sudden change. A question that, though related to the subject, still caught Phil off guard. "Why did you not get them into the game? If you had enough time to get over here, then you had plenty of time to get them into the game."

Phil was at a loss of words for a few moments, being unable to come up with an immediate response. He knew why he did it, but he wanted to put it in a way that didn't sound so...terrible? Well, it wasn't terrible, really. It was just how the world worked. He just did what his instincts told him.

Phil took a deep breath. Screw it. Just say it now. "Look, kid, out here...we're in danger. We could die at any time, and even right now we could get shot. We both know this, right? It's a case of survival of the fittest. I needed to take care of myself before getting the weaker ones to safety."

"The weaker ones?" Gale asked. "You're calling Alma and Lala weak? I didn't know much about Alma, but I knew for a fact that Lala was smarter than you. That's not saying much, though, is it?. At least she knows first aid. They couldn't even offer help. You didn't give them a chance to. You wouldn't even reply to them on your phone. You let them die."

Phil winced and tightened his hands into fists. No, he didn't kill them! It wasn't his fault! It's not his fault...it's not. He's always in the right. He's...never made a mistake before, and he hasn't made one now. "No, I didn't kill them," he said. "I just-"

"Do you know what Lala even said on Pesterchum?" Gale asked, cutting off Phil once more, which did not help the southerner calm down. "Do you know how scared she was in her last moments? She was scared. She wanted your help. She wanted her friend to help."

"And I would have helped!" Phil said quickly to not get cut off again. He couldn't get a word in edgewise here! Gale wouldn't shut up! "I would have helped her! I'm her friend!"

"No you're not," the child said bluntly. They had stopped walking by now and were in full blown argument, Yipp watching from a distance, not seeming to understand what was going on. "You're not her friend. If you were then you would try to get her into the game before coming over here to annoy me." Gale's voice volume was rising, but it wasn't full on yelling just yet.

"Be quiet!" the southerner shouted, having just about enough of this conversation. Lala was one of the few people he cared about. He couldn't say why or when he started caring about her. It just happened somewhere down the line. For Gale to say he didn't actually care about her...it was really getting to him.

"You can't even come up with an argument," Gale shook his head. "You know it's true. You know it, I know it. We both know it. You should just admit it."

That was when something snapped in Phil. He was overloaded on anger, and he needed to hit something. Phil brought his hand up, which was still balled into a fist, and tried to punch Gale. He just wanted the kid to shut up! Gale's eyes widened and he closed his eyes. He tried to move out of the way, but he wasn't moving fast enough. The fist made contact with his right shoulder and he winced. His can of pepper spray in his left hand, he quickly pointed it at Phil and pressed down on the nozzle.

The spray hit Phil right in the face and he winced before quickly taking a few steps back. "Ah! God! That hurts!"

"Two strikes," Gale said, taking a cautious step to Phil. The southerner looked confused, so he quickly explained himself. "We'll still be a team, but if you get three strikes, you're out. Killing our friends is strike one, even though it should be two strikes, and attacking me is strike two. One more thing that holds us back or may ruin the mission, and you're out. Really, I think you should be happy I'm not walking away right now and leaving you here."

Phil wasn't paying much attention to what Gale was saying, if he was going to be honest. He was too busy focusing on the stinging pepper spray, and the fact that it was making it hard to breath. "Fine, fine. Just don't spray me with that stuff. Where did you even get it?"

"I convinced my dad to buy it for me," the kid said as he put his can of pepper spray in his strife portfolio. He frowned upon his father most of the time, but the man did pull through when his son wanted him to do something.

"Your dad needs to learn to not give kids weapons like that." Phli regained his composure and shook his head. His face still stung and he was finding it hard to breath, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.

"Says the boy who has the pistol," Gale muttered before beginning to walk down the street once again. He wasn't checking to see if Phil was following him. He couldn't care less, and it was a surprise he gave the blonde a second chance in the first place. He even surprised himself with that, but...it can't be done now.

Phil was going to open his mouth to protest, but instead just stayed silent. Not wanting this "third strike" this kid might just give him. Little piece of crap… The blonde sighed and then followed Gale down the street. Right, they should just get back to...whatever they were trying to do. Phil had no idea. Oh, how he would protest if he knew their goals…

== Fate: Get yelled at

* * *

that moment when you update chapters incorrectly. I am so sorry! I hope you can forgive me for making this mistake! I didn't want it to happen! Sorry!


	26. Through the Portal!

"Where have you been, soldier?!" The sprite shouted, making Fate winced as he remembered why he was scared of the weird sprite thing. There was just something odd about being yelled at by a younger version of yourself.

Fate had walked back home when he had gotten the bad news about Lala and Alma, and after he spent some time yelling at Phil. Once he got blocked by the Texan he walked back home to ask his sprite for some advice, and now the thing was mad at him for going awol or whatever. It's not really awol if he's not in the army. "I was trying to kill some beetles, I guess."

"You have better things to worry about than some small, icky beetles!" Oh, lovely. The sergeant still had little kid vocabulary. "You have quests to finish, bad guys to beat, and weapons to make!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Fate muttered with a shake of his head. Honestly, he was getting a bit annoyed. He didn't come here to be yelled at. "Look, how can I get to other people's planets?"

"I am not finished yelling at you, soldier!"

"Yes, you are," Fate said as he made a fist and showed it to the sprite. He wasn't sure if he could actually hurt the thing, but he was pretty sure the younger side would take over and be scared at the idea of getting punched.

Sure enough, he was right. The sprite floated backwards a bit and shook his head before muttering some probably vulgar language. "Fine. What you have to do, soldier, is build your house up to get to the gates above your house."

"Oh, so that's what those things do," he muttered before bringing down the screen that was built into his hat. He was already beginning to contact Echo. This planet can wait for a while. There was a few more plants that could be eaten. He wanted to get to Echo.

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has begun pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

EE: echo

EE: i need you for something

TT: What is it?

EE: i need you to build up my house

EE: you know to the gates and all that?

EE: you knew this stuff right?

TT: I believe my sprite mentioned something like that

TT: but it was followed by many jokes, so I tuned him out.

TT: Perhaps I shouldn't have done that.

EE: i dont know maybe

EE: anyways can you build up my house?

TT: Well, it would require a lot of Grist, but if you think you can supply me with a decent amount, then I think I could do it.

EE: oh right you need that stuff

EE: okay fine ill go kill a few imps

EE: hope to see you later then

TT: Wait, Fate, before you go, I need to ask you something.

EE: sure what is it?

TT: Why are you suddenly focused on getting to the gates?

TT: Also, which gate do you wish to get to? I believe they go to different places.

EE: uh...second one i think?

EE: i dont know

EE: lets assume that does something?

EE: my sprite wont tell me

TT: Going out of order may be dangerous, you know?

TT: Are you sure?

EE: yes im sure

EE: anyways the reason why im doing this is because alma and lala are dead and i need to spend time with a friend

TT: ...oh my.

TT: They're dead? Are you certain?

EE: yes im pretty damn sure

TT: That is...a very unfortunate outcome.

EE: you dont sound so concerned

TT: Fate, that is completely uncalled for.

TT: You know I have problems reflecting my emotions.

TT: It's even harder in the form of text over the internet.

TT: I would almost be offended if there weren't more pressing matters.

EE: right right whatever

EE: sorry

EE: im going to kill imps you build up the house.

EE: bye

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

Ooooh boy, that girl is a piece of work. Honestly, it was a surprise that Alma was able to put up with her and call her a friend. Echo was mostly neutral towards everyone else in the group. According to her she never had opportunities for friends, or a lot of social interaction. Something about how it's hard to find those kind of opportunities when you live on an island with only your sister and one other girl.

Fate shook his head and then walked outside. Well, more like limp, honestly. His ankle still hurt when he put pressure on it, and he probably shouldn't even be walking on it, but he didn't care right now. He needed to get some grist and build his way up to the second gate. ...the building was actually Echo's job. But whatever.

The next...how long did it even last? Was it an hour, maybe two? Fate wasn't sure, but most of the passe time was spent hunting down imps, which didn't really hang around his house much. He had to leave the safety of his house multiple times to find a few imps, and by the end of it he was getting really tired. It gets really tiring, running around and stabbing people with a pen.

With some of the spare grist that Fate had, he decided to craft a few new weapons. They weren't anything special, considering they were still pens, but they were better than nothing.

He made another one of those ink bombs he had before, and then combined the ink bomb with another pen. The result wasn't as grand as what he thought it'd be. It was just a pen and when he pressed down on the button, it would spray out ink, like a squid. He...wasn't really sure what he was expecting from this, to be perfectly honest.

Ther other combination was a baseball bat and a pen. This just made a bat shaped pen. It was pretty heavy, and he could actually still click it to bring out the point, so he had a club and a spear. That's actually kind of useful, so he was happy with it.

After...maybe another hour of hunting ogres, which were a lot harder to kill kill than the imps, Fate had to contact Echo and inform her that he was taking a power nap. He needed to sleep, other wise he'd just pass out. He decided to sleep on the couch that was now in his room, thanks to Echo. As soon as his head made contact with the couch cushion, he fell asleep.

Nothing notable really happened. He didn't even get to visit that weird dream planet this time. Instead he just had weird dreams about giant bugs and flowers. How fitting.

A while later, Fate woke up to the sound of his phone notifying him about...a lot of notifications. Alright then. Echo must want to say something.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has begun pestering exaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

TT: Alright, I think you'll be happy to know that I have finished the construction.

TT: It's very high up, and doesn't look very structurally sound, so watch your step.

TT: Also, if you happen to go onto my planet through this get, you may very well end at my home.

TT: I won't be there. I'm a very long ways ahead from my home, actually.

TT: About a days away, and I don't know in which direction.

TT: I'm being led on a goose chase, it seems.

TT: We may not be able to run into each other for a while.

TT: But I'm sure we will meet each other eventually.

TT: I wish you good luck, Fate.

TT: And if you happen to fall after visiting my planet...

TT: Try to land on something soft.

TT: Alright, excuse me. I am being bothered.

TT: Good bye.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has ceased pestering ExaggerateEfficiently (EE)**

At first, Fate had just chuckled about the comment about falling, before he realized that seemed like a real possibility. How high up was he going to be? He doubted he'd just be gently put on the ground...oh boy. This was going to be tricky.

Fate shrugged and walked out of his house before looking up, looking at all the work Echo had gotten done. His house...got tall. Really, really tall. Honestly, it was basically just a giant staircase with a house at the bottom. Nothing special, but Fate wasn't looking for anything extravagant.

Fate took a deep breath and began his ascension, trying to avoid looking down whenever he could. He did look down every once and awhile, though, and on the higher levels this just made him dizzy. It would have been nice for Echo to put in hand rails…

Fate got onto one of the platforms that Echo had thankfully put down and took a breather. He was just feeling dizzy. He never liked heights, and being so high up with nothing to keep him from falling...that was just awful. The only reason why he wasn't like this in the flower was because he wasn't in the open in the flower. On this giant staircase he could just fall...and keep falling for who knows how long before splatting against the ground.

Fate shivered slightly and then decided to keep going. Can't stay here for too long. He has to keep going. Only one way to get to Echo's land, after all.

The staircase had taken a sudden turn when it reached the first gate. Echo was told to avoid it, and she did a good job doing it, though she was right about the staircase looking dangerous. It just suddenly jutted out to the right of the house, not providing any balance at all. It was a wonder how the house didn't fall over.

Fate walked past the gate, staring at it as he continued up the stairs. He was supposed to jump into that? Oh boy...okay, well, hopefully the fall would be a safe one. Fate shook his head and continued walking, looking forward instead of down. Just keep going…

Fate finally made it to the second gate after who knows how long. By the time he got there he was out of breath, similar to the flower. How come he has to find all the giant staircases? Anyways, Fate focused on the gate now, which was just at the edge of the platform. He was just supposed to...jump in? Sounds pretty dangerous...here goes nothing.

Closing his eyes, Fate took one step off the platform and just let himself fall. When he opened his eyes...it wasn't hard to notice the change of scenery. No giant flowers or bugs...that's a nice change. What didn't change, though, was the fact he was still falling.

Fate let out a scream as he came plummeting towards the ground. When he expected to make contact with the ground, he closed his eyes. Instead of solid ground, though, he fell on...something really cold. He opened his eyes and noticed he was surrounded by...was this snow? It wasn't white like normal snow, but...light blue. Okay, thats weird.

Fate quickly climbed out of the snow pile, shivering as he did. He never experienced snow, having lived in Florida his whole life. When he made it out of the pile, he noticed that something was laughing. Following the noise to his source, he noticed what must have been Echo's sprite. Wow, okay, Echo really made some sort of monstrosity.

"You know, it was pretty _cool_ of you to just _drop in_ ," the sprite joked, causing Fate to chuckle a small bit. At least it had a sense of humor. That's something every skull...snowman thing needs to have.

"Yeah, pretty funny. Thanks for saving me, by the way." Fate glanced back at the snow pile, stared at the imprint he made in the pile for a few moments, then looked back to the sprite. "I'm guessing you had to use a pile of snow?"

"Well, that and it was a pretty good setup for a joke," the sprite said with a chuckle. "I was already going to say something about dropping in. This is just icing on the cake."

"Are you sure it's not _ice_ -ing?"

The sprite stared at the child for a moment before breaking out into loud laughter. Wow, okay, that's loud. It wasn't even that good of a joke...

"That's a good one!" Skullmansprite yelled out, that smile still on its face. Actually...most skulls just have smiles on their face. Okay, that was normal. Ignore the smile, it's not odd.

"Right, well, anyways, do you know where Echo is?" Fate asked as he looked around. This really wasn't much different from his own place, except there's not as many flowers or vegetation. Around here it was just grass. That's...a bit boring. Not necessarily pleasing to the eyes., but it was Echo's planet, so it was bound to be a bit boring. Nothing against Echo, but she could be a bit dull.

"Oh, your server player left a looong time ago." As it said this, the sprite's hat threatened to fall off his head, but somehow it stayed on, obviously defying gravity. There was no other explanation. "I haven't seen her in...a day."

"Well, where did she go? Which direction?"

The sprite took one of its stick arms and pointed over to some small city that Fate could barely make out. Man, his eyesight was...actually pretty bad. Maybe he should find a way to make glasses…

"Right, well, I think I'll be going, then. Stay _frosty_ , my friend." The sprite howled in what was probably over exaggerated laughter as Fate gave him the double pistols before walking away, towards the city. That was...actually a pretty nice interaction. It was enough to put him in a better mood, or at least for now. Now all he had to do was find Echo…

== Fate: be Gale


	27. Strike Three

Gale sighed as he continued walking down the street. The one that he had been walking down since early this morning. He had expected something interesting to happen now, but there was no such luck. The highlight of the whole walk was Yipp getting hungry, and Gale had to offer him one of those rock candy bones he had received earlier. He only had one left, so hopefully he could find some more food later.

"Where are we even going?" Phil finally said, breaking the silence that much have lasted for at least an hour. They haven't talked to each other since their little confrontation earlier. The silence that had followed was honestly rather awkward, but Gale didn't mind. Honestly, hearing the blonde talk was annoying on its own.

"I was expecting there to be some type of building if we kept walking," the younger one of the two said, not bothering to look at the other. If the relationship between the two wasn't tense before, it certainly was now. "Some big building that seemed important, you know?"

"Like what? Somethin' like the White House? We only left Wolf New York a few hours ago. Gotta wait a while longer b'fore we get there." This place was obviously supposed to copy America. Obviously. Only in a much worse situation.

"No, I'm not talking about the White House," Gale said with a shake of his head. "I mean something like a castle. You know, where important people would be. Someone who would be in charge."

"Hey, there are important people in the White House. Ever heard of the president?" Phil shook his head before putting his hands in his pockets. He pulled out his phone and turned it on. "What do you think you'll find at the castle anyways?"

"I was told there'd be a king there," Gale said as he noticed what a city up ahead. Well, that made his hope rise a small bit. There, a city. They may actually make some progress, then. He wasn't sure how big the city was, of course, but at least they were going to see some more wolves, and a store. Maybe they could buy some actual human food.

"A king, huh?" Phil asked as he also noticed the city. Oh, thank god. Maybe something exciting would happen here. It was so boring to just walk in this silence...and also really awkward. "And what are you plannin' on doin' when you see the king?"

There was silence for a few moments before Gale facepalmed, shaking his head. "You don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing here, do you, Phil?" he asked, glancing back at the Texan for the first time in a while.

"No clue," the blonde said as the small group of three entered the cities. This really looked like a slum. There were a few wolves just sitting on the sidewalk with a small bag and a cardboard sign next to them. The signs only had the word "bark" on them, but if Phil could read dog he was sure it'd say something like "Spare change?"

"So why did you decide to help me? What if I have to do something you think is impossible?"

"Well, I don't got anythin' else to do," Phil said as he waved at one of the wolf human things on the sidewalk. The wolf's eyes followed him and it let out a soft whimper. Phil winced slightly and shook his head. Dogs. Man, he loves dogs. Those things are so nice. Very loyal when you train them well. He almost didn't want to ignore this thing.

Yipp, though, didn't have the same reaction as the human. The little wolf child was just followed the two humans, barking at the other wolves every once and awhile. The little one seemed happy. At least that was one good thing.

"Actually, you could have just left," Gale said with a shake of his head. "Go back to your planet. Feel free to do that now, even."

"Like I'd know how to do that," the southerner said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides, I don't think I have enough o' that grist stuff to build another cannon."

"You came from a cannon?" Gale tilted his head slightly. Did he really hear that right? When Phil nodded, Gale just decided to go with it and not ask questions. For all he knew Phil just had a cannon at his home. It'd be best not to ask.

"Anyways, what are we doin'?" Phil asked once again, putting his phone back in his pocket. Right, nothing happened on Pesterchum. The communist didn't bother to talk to him. Fine. The less he hears of her, the better.

"We're going to bring the king back into rule," Gale explained, already sure he knew where this was going to go. "Bring him back into rule and then bring peace and order back to the land. Fix this place up and give these people some rules."

"Woah woah, wait a minute," Phil said as he grabbed the younger one, causing him to stop walking. "You tellin' me that you want all this to end? Look, I know that sounds like a good idea to you, but c'mon, that's just stupid."

"No, what's stupid is living in a place without rules." Gale tried to remove Phil's hand, but the southerner kept his grip on him. "There's no way you can say this is actually a good place. Just look around! People are poor, getting hurt and dying!"

"Oh, please. That's only because they chose to be like that." The blonde looked around at the wolves he could see at the moment. He could make it in a society like this. The only reason why he might fail is because he'd be too lazy to contribute. "Everyone chooses their own path, kid. If they get hurt, it's their fault. Survival of the fittest."

"So you're saying that you'd rather have it like this?" Gale asked, his anger rising. He wasn't going to help, was he? This guy is so useless… "You don't want to fix this? You just want to leave?"

"I'm not sayin' that I'm going to just get on outta here, but what I am sayin' is just give it a chance and see what happens. Maybe it'll work out."

"No, you obviously don't know how these things work." Once more Gale tried to move Phil's hand away, but the older one still kept his grip, and he even tightened it a bit. It was starting to hurt, actually. "Now let me go. I have things to do."

"Look, kid, I'm not goin' to let you do those things. You need to lighten up a bit. Just let things run its course. If a king comes in here, these people aren't goin' to have free will."

"I really doubt that," Gale muttered, still struggling to get away. Maybe he should just pepper spray this guy. Could this be a strike three? "So...you're not going to help? Are you going to help anyone?"

"Only myself right now." Phil now had a grin on his face. Whether it was because he thought he said something funny or he knew it'd make the shorter of the two pissed, Gale didn't know or care. All Gale knew was that this was making his blood boil as he tried to get out of the blonde's ! This kid is so useless! Only helping himself? Why should he even be here anyways?!

== Gale: Strike three…

He's out! Gale quickly moved his hand away from Phil's own, a can of pepper spray appearing in his hands. He aimed the canister at the Texan and pressed down on the nozzle. The spray hit him dead in the face. Phil let go of him and took a few steps back, shaking his head as he did.

"What the hell!?" he yelled out as he looked back up at Gale, his eyes tearing up due to the spray. "What was that for?!"

Gale quickly put his can of pepper spray away and pulled out his pepper spray vacuum. He needed a good name for that thing...pepper blower? No, uh...well, whatever. He'll figure that out later. Anyways, Gale held the weapon with two hands and narrowed his eyes at Phil. "Strike three," he said simply before rushing towards Phil.

Before the blonde could react, Gale swung his vacuum at him, hitting him in the side. Gale honestly didn't know what he was doing now. He didn't know why he swung at Phil. He didn't want to hurt the guy...well, at least not badly, but he was just...so annoying. Beating on him a bit wouldn't be bad, right?

Phil, however, wasn't taking that. He stumbled off to the side after the attack and turned to face Gale. It didn't take long for him to bring out his weapon, the flag with the knife point at the end, and tightening his grip around it. So it's a fight the kid wants, huh? Fine, whatever. He'll beat the shit outta this kid.

"Fine...if this is how you wanna go 'bout it," Phil muttered, panting as the spray made it harder to breath. Time to teach this kid a lesson. Phil rushed forward and in the matter of a few seconds, raised his weapons and brought it down.

Gale's eyes widened and he quickly blocked the attack with his vacuum. Phil was a lot stronger than he thought. He could barely keep his weapon in his hands after such a blow. Using all the strength he could, he quickly pushed Phil away and then began to run around him, which was a bit difficult to do with a vacuum. He was hoping to find an opening, and by now he was starting to think things over. Okay...attacking the violent Texan was a bad idea...

Phil watched as Gale ran around him. Now holding his flag with one hand, he pulled out his trusty pistol with another and fired, not bothering to take aim. He was going to hurt this kid. One way or another, the kid was getting injured.

Gale stopped running as soon as he noticed the gun. He took a few steps back to avoid getting shot. Once he recovered from the surprise, he lunged at Texan, bringing his vacuum down once more. It made contact with Phil's flag, however. Phil had dropped his gun to be able to hold his flag with both hands. Gale frowned before noticing the end of the vacuum was pointed right at Phil.

Quickly pressing a button, a huge amount of pepper spray hit Phil straight in the face. He screamed and backed up, sputtering and coughing. Now that Phil was stunned, Gale swung at him once more. Gale knew that he should probably stop, but by now...he couldn't. Phil was going to hurt him if he tried to stop. He needed to keep going. He needed to at least disarm the boy.

Phil, knowing he needed to defend himself, randomly swung his weapon forward. When he felt it make contact with something, he tried to look around for Gale, still coughing and sputtering, but it was slowly beginning to die down.

From what he could see through his tears, Gale was sitting down, seeming to have fallen, a cut in the side of his shirt and a red stain marking his body and police outfit. He still had his vacuum in his hands, and while he struggled to get back up, Phil rushed forward and quickly knocked him down, knocking the vacuum away from the kid once he was back down.

Phil gave Gale one last kick for good measure before grabbing his gun from off the ground. He walked back over to Gale and aimed the gun at his head, barely being able to aim through all the tears from the spray. Phil was barely thinking about his actions before executing them now. He was red with anger and he already been pepper sprayed more times than he preferred. This was going to end. Now.

"H-Hey, Phil, come on now, be reasonable here," Gale said as he tried to get back up, but couldn't find it in him. His voice faltered and tears welled up in his eyes as he tried to find to convince himself to get up, but he couldn't. He knew what was coming, and he was already closing his eyes in as he waited for what was to come.

"Be quiet," Phil muttered before pulling the trigger. There was a loud bang followed by a few yelps. Those were either from other wolves, or from Yipp. Phil didn't know, and he didn't care at the moment. Now Gale was on the ground, limp and not moving, a hole in his head.

Did Phil feel bad? Well, he would have before, but now he certainly didn't. The kid had tried to hurt him! He would have killed him if Phil didn't take action, he was sure of it! It's not his fault, it's Gale's. It's all his fault...

Phil shook his head and took a deep breath before taking out his phone. Right, troubleTimes. Deliver the bad news.

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has begun pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

PR: whoever decided to have gale be my server player was an idiot

PR: it didnt end well

TT: Oh, hello.

TT: I am shocked you actually decided to message me. I've heard that other people have tried talking to you.

TT: And what do you mean by it "It didn't end well?"

PR: im not playing anymore

PR: and neither is the kid really

PR: its impossible for him to do it now

PR: have fun with this game

PR: dont expect my help

PR: bye

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

== Months later…

* * *

Okay, so chapter twenty five was screwed up. I uploaded the wrong document and I apologize. I've changed it and no everything should be back on track. I am sorry for any inconvenience that I've caused...sorry guys.


	28. Second Chances

A black haired boy, easily about the age of sixteen, maybe even a bit older, walked back and forth on the empty, grassy field that LOSAE had to offer. He adjusted his star-shaped sunglasses, which also doubled as his computer, as he tried to sort all of this out. "So, let me get this straight...one of your players was an ass, and now half of the team here is dead?"

Echo, who was standing nearby, sighed. "If you wanted to put this in simple terms...yes, that's about what happened." She glanced at Fate, whose ankle had far since healed by now, as well as his state of emotions. He came to terms with the fact that three of his friends were very much dead. "I think my friend here has more to say on the subject, though."

"Well, yeah, I do, but it's not anything that'd be helpful," he muttered, looking down at his feet. Besides, he just met this guy a couple hours ago, and Echo said there were more? Oh, geez. How many people are here? And how did they even get here? Last time he checked everyone on Earth was dead.

"Heh, right, I guess it's understandable," the boy said with a shrug. "By the way, I don't think I know your name. The girl over here decided not to tell me."

"It wasn't important at the time," Echo said with a shrug before adjusting her glasses.

"Oh, wow, thanks. I feel special." Fate shook his head before looking up at this stranger. "The name's Fate."

The boy nodded, grinning a bit as he did so. "I'm Gabe. Nice to meet you, my man." His grin turned into a smile and he smiled at the boy, though he didn't seem to care, so he just turned back to Echo. "Anyways, it sucks that half of your guys are dead."

"That's really putting it lightly," the canadian said as she glanced over at her friend. They had certainly gotten closer over these past months, and he could tell already that Fate was getting a bit upset with this conversation. "It did quite a number on Fate emotionally, so I suggest you talk about it with a bit more respect."

Gabe nodded. "Right, sorry. I know how bad it can be to lose someone you care about. So...now there are three of you, huh?" Unless the asshole also died. Then there's only two. Yeah, this session is screwed. Bad place for their team to land…

"Well, it's more like there are two people left," Echo said as she moved to her Pesterchum app using her computer glasses. These things were so useful. They never even ran out of batteries. "The last time Phil had messaged me was when he shot our friend. That was a few months ago, and we haven't heard from him since. He's either missing in action or he's just dead. Either one are likely options."

"I hope he's dead…" Fate muttered. Fate wasn't the type of guy to get that angry at people, so for him to say something like that...well, he certainly wasn't feeling friendly towards Phil, that's for sure.

"Mmhmm, I see," Gabe took off his glasses and blinked his chocolate brown eyes a couple , okay, taking those things off was always an odd experience. "Well, what if I said that I could help you two out of your bind?"

"Hmm? You could do that?" Echo tilted her head slightly, rather intrigued by this. How could he help? Sure, he could try to help them finish the game, but...that seemed rather impossible now, even if they had more people on their side.

"Yeah, totally," the boy put his hands in the pockets of his red jacket, a grin on his face as he did so. "Listen, I got certain powers that could help you out here. Considering your options are limited, I suggest you let me help you."

Echo shrugged. "I'm fine with asking for help," she said before looking towards Fate. He too just shrugged, not seeming to care. "I think we've come to an agreement, so please, do what you must."

Gabe nodded. "Right, well, where do you think it all went wrong?" he asked. "I can change a moment in your timeline and fix everything, I'm sure of it. I just need to know what you think went wrong with this...Phil? Yeah, Phil. What about him needs changing?"

"Um...I am confused by what you mean," Echo admitted, though the only reason she did so was because she had gotten more humble over the course of the month. It was easier to admit what she did and didn't know. "But the event that had the most effect over the game, if that is what you're asking for, was when Phil refused to get our friends into the game."

"Right, so, just go into his house and make him connect to his friends. Right, got it." Gabe then snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "By the way, this probably won't help you, only your past selves."

"...I'm sorry? Our past selves? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I mean, these versions of you are probably just going to...go away and die eventually," Gabe explained, treating it rather casually. Like he was not talking about dying and instead talking about going to the store for milk. "The past versions of you, though, are going to live, so...at least you get to live kind of...in a way. It's a long story. I'm just going to go now."

"Hey, hey! Now you wait just a min-" Before Fate could finish his sentence, Gabe's body glowed red and disappeared within a second, leaving Fate and Echo alone. Well...not alone. Gabe also left his friends there, so at least they had company…

=== Months in the past

The Land of Oppression and Rebellion. Just like how it happened in the past, Phil was talking to his sprite. The weird, George Washington mixed with an Eagle sprite. He should have a name for this thing. George Eagleton? ...Sounds great.

"Right, well, can't wait 'till I get a chance to see you again, Georgie," the Texan said as he saluted the...deceased president? Technically he's deceased, so that counts. "I'll make you proud, don't you worry!"

Phil turned around and walked towards the door, the sprite just deciding to do it's own thing. As Phil approached the door, his way would be blocked by...well, Gabe! What else would it be?

"Woah there, partner," Gabe said, lowering his sunglasses just slightly so he can get a better look at the boy in front of him. Wow, he even looks like an ass. Lovely. "I suggest you slow your roll there. You got some things to do."

Phil blinked once or twice and shook his head. Wait, what? Who was this guy? "Uh...do I know you?" he asked. "Because if I don't, then get out of my house. I got a revolution to start."

"Actually, you have friends you have to get into the game, so how about we do that instead?" Gabe took a few steps further into the house, acting all casual and such.

Phil, though, was still incredibly confused. What the hell was this guy's problem? "Yeah, I have friends I need to help, but they can wait, can't they?" It wouldn't take too long, surely….well, hopefully it wouldn't.

Gabe chuckled. "Oh, no, they can't wait." He then grabbed Phil's arm and tried to drag him further into the house, but he was met with some expected resistance. Right, this guy wasn't going to cooperate. Great.

"Get yer hands off me!" Phil said as he pushed Gabe away and took out his pistol. He pointed it at Gabe. "Look, I don't know who you are, but-"

Gabe reacted quickly. The sixteen year old had already thrown a chain at the blonde. This chain had a hook on the end, and was able to hook onto the gun's trigger guard. Gabe tugged on the chain, pulling the gun out of Phil's hands, leaving the surprised blonde with no weapon

"Look, let's just say I"m a friend of your friends, alright?" Gabe asked as he grabbed Phil's arm once more and began to drag him deeper into the house. "Now, let's go get to your computer. We still have people to get into the game, don't you think, pardner?" Oh geez, that southern accent was so over exaggerated…

"Fine, fine," Phil muttered, but not before attempted to pull his arm away once more. Gabe kept a tight grip on Phil, though, so he was unable to get away. Whoever this guy was, it was probably best to go with what he said, otherwise he'd go all Scorpion on him with that chain of his.

"Good." Gabe let go of Phil and pushed him towards the staircase. "Now if you could just take me to your room, that'd be great. Then we can really get moving."

"Can I at least get your name?" Phil asked as he began to walk up the stairs. Stupid kid telling him what to do...he didn't even know who this guy was.

"The name's Gabe, and I already know your name, it's Phil." That was what the one girl told him, at least, so he was going to assume that was true.

Phill tensed up and stopped moving just as he stepped on the first stair of the staircase. He blinked and looked behind him at the stranger as he slowly began his ascent up the stairs again.

"...how the hell do you know my name?" Okay, this guy was really getting on his nerves now. It was his attitude and the fact that he just...knew things he shouldn't. That definitely got on his nerves…

"Oh, a friend told me," Gabe said as they both went up the stairs and got into Phil's room. He then gestured over to the laptop. "Now, how about you go get your friend into the game. It won't even take that long, trust me. Just put down the objects, and I'm sure she could take care of the rest."

"If you say so," Phil muttered as he sat down at his desk and began to connect to Lala. He didn't like following orders, but he didn't really have a weapon besides his flag. That, and he didn't want to get in a fight with this guy. At least...not yet.

Right, you're now connected to Lala. Put this down, put that down...yada yada yada. Oh, yeah, and tell her you connected. Good job, Phil. You know what you're doing.

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has begun pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

PR: hey i connected

PR: all the stuff you need is in that living room of yours

PR: have fun

MD: oh!

MD: thank you!

PR: yeah

PR: bye

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has ceased pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

Phil sighed and then looked at Gabe, who had a wide grin on his face. Okay, yeah, this guy is really annoying. Jeez… "Are you happy now?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy." Gabe leaned against the table and chuckled. "You don't seem too happy, though. What's wrong? Don't like helping your friends out?"

"I don't like people bossin' me around," Phil said as he stood up and captchalogued his laptop. It could be useful, if he needed to play the game while he was out of the house. "So now that I helped Lala out, what now?"

Gabe held back a laugh. "Her name is Lala?" he asked before shaking his head. Weird name, but whatever. "Never mind. The name doesn't matter. What matters is right now, and right now, you're stuck with me."

"Wait...what?" Oh no, Phil could not be stuck with this annoying, smug piece of crap. That was not happening. "Don't you have other things you have to do besides followin' me around?"

"Mmm...not really, no." Gabe shrugged as he walked away from the desk. "In fact, I got...either at least or at most a month before I really have anything to do, so think about it as you getting some help."

"I don't need your help," Phil said as he walked out of the room, Gabe following right behind him. "You're just wastin' your time."

"Okay, sure. Whatever you say, buddy." Gale sped up so he passed Phil. As he walked by Phil, he patted him on the head, similar to what you'd do with a little kid. That didn't help Phil's mood at all. "Now, let's get going. We don't have long now, do we? After all, you got things to do."

=== Gabe: be Lala


	29. Lala's Rubix Cube Fun!

We are now focusing on Lala again, who decided to close and captchalogue her laptop. She's going to need it later if she wants to play the game! It'd be good to take it with her! Her fetch modus sure made things difficult, though. It was the present modus. It just gave her a random, gift wrapped item. It was annoying if she wanted a particular item, but hey, everyday is like Christmas with this modus!

Anywho, she needs to get moving. Phil seemed impatient. Wouldn't want to keep him waiting...if he even was waiting for her. Lala found that the boy was hard to figure out. It was difficult to figure out what the southerner was thinking. Though, figuring out people wasn't her thing, anyways. That was Echo's thing.

Lala, after grabbing the card on her nightstand that Phil put down, made her way to the living room. Thankfully, her mother wasn't there now. Where was she? She had no idea. Probably in the lab. She usually spends her time in there when she's not watching cheesy soap operas and drinking expensive wine. How stereotypically rich can her mother get? Jeez!

Finding the Cruxtruder rather quickly, Lala ran her hand along the smooth, metallic surface. She had no idea how she was going to open this. She definitely couldn't hit it with anything. She only had Bookkind for her specibus! Whacking this thing with a book certainly wouldn't open it!

As Lala brainstormed for ideas to open this thing, suddenly, the lid glowed a light green color and suddenly popped off, falling to the floor. What came out was a carnation pink colored dowel, and...what Lala could only assume was a sprite, and it was the same shade of pink as the dowel.

Lala looked around and noticed that her friendly neighborhood raccoon thing was sitting right next to her. She smiled and patted the creature on the head before turning back to the dowel. She quickly picked it up and tried to remember what to do with it...break it? No, definitely not. She wasn't even sure if she could break this thing, anyways. Uh...time to check the group chat.

Lala then pulled out her phone and hummed as she opened her pesterchum app. Right, group chat, and...oh, dear. That's a lot of conversation. Didn't Echo say something about not talking in this chat? Well, people obviously broke that rule…

Okay, so...something about the totem lathe. Put it in there and...ah! She's got it! So, she took the dowel and walked over to the machine. She quickly put it in the designated area and waited, a few drills and such coming out of the machine to carve the dowel. Woooah, that was cool!

Once the machine was finished with the dowel, Lala grabbed it and examined it. Though this probably wasn't the right time, she really admired the design that was carved into it. How nice! It's kind of like pottery. She always wanted to take pottery classes, but her mother never allowed her. Said it was too dirty or something.

Lala ran her hands along the dowel for a while longer before shaking her head. Oh, right, she had something to do! Heh, she got distracted for a moment there! Lala then turn to the Alchemiter, humming as she did so. This was the last machine she had to use. Thank goodness Phil put them so close together! He's such a nice guy.

The girl then put the dowel on the scanner...thing. Was it scanning it? She had no idea...oh well! It really didn't matter. What matter was getting in the game. She wasn't worried, of course. She probably had a whole load of time.

"Oh, also!" Lala had almost forgot! The sprite! It had been following her around for awhile now. She should give it something! So, Lala ran to her room and, about a minute later, she came back with a teddy bear. She gave the bear one last hug and then tossed it into the sprite. With a pink flash, the sprite was prototyped, turning into a bear head...and that was it. Hmm..how boring. Oh, yeah, and it was roaring. That's nice. After staring at the sprite for a moment or two, trying to make sense of it's nonsense roaring, she turned back to the Alchemiter. Oh! It's done!

What the alchemiter made, after scanning the cruxite dowel for a while, was...a small cube. After picking it up and examining the multicolored cube, Lala realized it was a Rubix cube. Oh, these things are fun! She just had to solve this? Okay, well...how much time did she have?

As if thinking some timer would be in the living room, Lala looked around for something that was counting down. She didn't find anything just yet, though. It was only when she looked at the cruxtruder did she realize how much time she really had.

"Ten minutes!?" Lala had said aloud. Ten minutes!? She couldn't complete a Rubix cube in that amount of time, could she? Well...she had to try.

Lala then looked down at the cube in her hands and began to mess around with it, trying to match the colorful little squares. She was focusing on the greens, first. Okay, put that there, and twist this...no! That doesn't work! Agh!

Suddenly, there was a loud boom, which caused Lala to jump. She looked out the window and noticed smoke coming from the distance. She gasped and put a hand to her mouth. Oh dear! A meteor landed! Oh good grief! Okay, um...yeah. Just...just focus on the cube. You don't have much time.

Lala, her hands shaking slightly, went back to the puzzle, twisting it this way and that, desperately trying to find a way to make all the colors match. A few minutes had passed, and Lala had gotten no where. She looked up and noticed she only had six minutes left. Lala looked like she was about to tear up. This was it, wasn't it? Was she going to die here?

Lala closed her eyes and shook her head. No, no. You're fine...just finish this puzzle. The girl adjusted her glasses so she could rub her eyes. She took a deep breath and opened them, looking down at the puzzle with a determined look. Rubix cube. Get to it.

Twist it this way...that way...right, that's one side. Look up, now. Five minutes! Hey, you got this! Lala looked back down, a small smile on her face. A few more sides in just a couple minutes? Alright, sounds good! Twist that way...this way…

All around her there were sounds of disasters. Deafening booms as the meteors hit the surface of the earth, and the growing heat as one head to her own house, but she ignored it, completely focused on the puzzle in front of her. She could do this!

It took a few more minutes to get the other sides, but with that final twist, she smiled and tossed the cube into the air. "I did it!" she exclaimed as there was a pink flash, and suddenly her house was gone, along with the lab. Lucky for her, too. Right as her house disappeared, the meteor that was made to destroy her house made contact with the surface, destroying everything in the nearby area.

=== Lala: Look at your planet

* * *

 **This chapter is...a lot shorter than what I thought it'd be. Huh...sorry about that, guys. I thought I'd have more. Anyways uh...I just wanna say thank you for staying with me all this time. It means a lot. Really hope you're enjoying it.**


	30. Land of Sickness and Frogs

Land of Sickness and Frogs

Once the rather blinding flash was gone, Lala blinked once or twice and looked around her house. Well, nothing much changed here, besides a few things falling off the shelves, and some fine china breaking. Her mother wasn't going to like that, but Lala saved the both of them, so she shouldn't get in too much trouble...hopefully.

Lala then hopped off the Alchemiter, which she was standing on while she worked on the cube, and then walked towards the window to take a look outside.

When she looked outside...she noticed a lot of death. Skulls and crossbones, dead trees and wilting flowers, all just a few feet awat from her house. Dry and dead grass, and leaves were covering the ground, but they had no color. It was like a really depressing fall, but without the pretty colors. Oh, and frogs. There were a lot of frogs bouncing around, mostly away from her house, which...was weird. Kind of icky, honestly. Frogs are slimey, but they were kind of cute.

There was a roar behind Lala and she jumped before turning around. Oh, right, the bear sprite! "I almost forgot about you!" she said with a small giggle. Right, whatever. She should prototype something else with this...did it grow arms? Woah! It grew arms! That's awesome! She kind of wanted to give it a hug...but that may be a bad idea. She might end up prototyping herself with this thing, but...it was so adorable!

RIght before Lala hugged her adorable little teddy bear sprite, her phone buzzed and she also heard a notification come from her laptop. Oh, jeez. Right, two things with Pesterchum on them. Of course that's going to happen!

So, Lala took a few gift wrapped items out of her modus, humming as she began to unwrap them. Oh, no, that's the first aid kit. Just captchalogue that again. ...that's the bundle of wrapping paper. She just kept the big ball of wrapping paper she had in her modus. It was an easy way to clean everything up. Okay, what about this one? Yes! That's the laptop!

Lala opened up her laptop and checked her pesterchum. Who was messaging her…? Oh! It was Alma! You know, Alma. The girl that hasn't spoken since a ton of chapters ago. Yeah, that girl. Hopefully you didn't forget about her!

 **almandCream (AC) has begun pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

AC: yo

AC: you in the game yet?

AC: these meteors are making me a bit anxious yknow?

MD: hi Alma!

MD: i'm in the game now yeah

MD: ill get you in the game soon dont worry

MD: just give me a moment

AC: okay be quick about it though

MD: dont worry i will!

 **medicalDirectory (MD) has ceased pestering almandCream (AC)**

Lala smiled and closed her laptop before captchaloguing it again. Honestly, she probably should have just used her phone, which was in her pocket, though if she was going to be honest she had almost forgot about it during all the excitement. She didn't even use it much anyways, so it was understandable.

Lala then walked over to the front door to her house, humming still. She was awfully cheerful considering the dreadful situation she was in, as well as the awful looking planet she was in. It looked like some disease bomb went off or something. ...disease bombs? Are those things? Uh...they probably were.

The girl opened the door to her house and took a step outside. She took a deep breath of air, only to regret her decision soon after. She coughed and turned back inside, quickly closing the door behind her. Her eyes were watering and she shook her head. That air was awful! Like...it was polluted or something, and all that pollution decided to go into her mouth. How fun...ugh, she needed a doctor mask or something.

Shaking her head, the girl then walked around her house, trying to find something else for her sprite. She had a teddy bear in that thing, so she could throw in another stuffed animal if she really wanted to, but...how about she picked something creative? Yeah! That works! So, she continued to move along, trying to find something interesting to throw in.

Suddenly, Lala gasped as she remembered some really cool item she could throw in. She rushed to her mother's room and rushed inside. Her mother would kill her if she knew she was in her room, but she didn't care at the moment. She walked over to the dresser and ran her hand along the surface. After a few moments, she came across a wooden, small...puppet thing.

The child picked up the doll and examined it, running her hands along the surface of the item. It was a nice, little gentleman doll. It was wearing an adorable little top hat, a monocle, a suit, and was holding a walking cane and a cup of tea. This was going to be so adorable.

Lala quickly turned around and ran out of her mother's room. Once she spotted the sprite, who was in the living room, she threw the doll at the bear sprite. The sprite roared and the doll landed in its mouth. There was a sudden, pink flash of light.

When the flash subsided, Lala looked at her sprite. Pleased with the results, she smiled and clapped her hands together. "You look so adorable!" she exclaimed.

The sprite was still carnation pink, and it still had a bear head, but now it was wearing a tophat and had a monocle. It was wearing a suit, and, instead of the doll's teacup and walking cane, it had a picnic basket and a big stick.

"Ah, thank you for the prototype, my dear," the sprite said, opening it's picnic basket and taking a look inside. It had a rough voice and a british accent. Yeah, that was kind of weird. "That other form of mine was just so barbaric, or maybe I should say bear-baric, if it makes you happy."

Lala giggled and nodded. "So adorable," she said before looking around. "Oh, yeah, by the way, where are we? Do you know? And can you tell me what I do here?"

"Oh, well, I can answer one question at least." The sprite walked over to the door and was about to swing it open, but when Lala shook her head, he decided against it. "You are in the Land of Sickness and Frogs."

"Sickness...well, that explains it," she said with a nod. "Alright, well...what am I supposed to do here? Or can you not answer that?"

"Well, I can answer that, but I must say that I feel like you should figure this journey out on your own. Wouldn't you say so?"

"Oh, uh...I don't know. I'm not the weird game sprite thing," she said with a shrug. "But I think I can figure it out on my own! Oh, and I can save the frogs. They're all sick! ...are the frogs the only people here?"

"They most certainly are," the Gentlebearsprite said with a nod. "They are the only one left after the plague had infected this land, killing the rest of the plants and creatures."

"Oh, wow, that's sad…" she muttered. "I guess I should get going now, but...first I need to get something."

Lala turned away from the sprite and then looked through a whole bunch of cupboards and drawers. In the kitchen, the living room and in the bedroom. After a few minutes of searching, Lala found what she was looking for in the bathroom and took the mask out of the cupboard. She put it around her face and walked back to the sprite.

"Okay, I think I'm ready," she said as she walked to the door. Well, hopefully she was. "Are you coming with me, fuzzy bear sprite man?"

"I'm sorry, m'lady, but I can't join you just yet," the sprite answered as he sat down on the couch, still digging through his picnic basket for...something. "You still need experience before I am able to join you on your journey."

Lala nodded. "Okay! Can't wait until you can come along!" She waved goodbye at the sprite and then walked outside the house, slamming the door shut on her way out. She didn't have much in terms of a weapon. Only a really heavy book that was literally titled "Medical Directory." If you couldn't tell, this gave her the idea for her pesterchum name. She wasn't all that creative. Oh well! She didn't expect to run into anything dangerous, or get in a fight. So, with a smile on her face, off she went!

=== Lala: Be Alma

* * *

Sorry for being so late to bring our a chapter, everyone. I got caught up with something yesterday, but I hope you enjoy this one. A bit more progress in Lala's Land. Hopefully more progress will happen over the next few chapters. May have to edit a few already typed things, but still. If you think I can improve on anything, feel free to leave a review. Other than that, have a good week!


	31. Keep your Cool

Man, isn't this just a bad situation, huh? Alma was currently just laying on her bed, looking at her phone and trying to ignore absolutely everything that was happening around her. She heard some fire engines off in the distance, as well as what was probably a police siren...or maybe just more fire engines. Her father stopped working in his workshop, though, so that's nice. That's one plus to all of this.

Alma sighed and grabbed her cigarette pack, as well as her lighter. She shook the box a couple times to try and tell how many she had left. She had been lighting them up quite a bit ever since she noticed the meteors, which had been...who knows how long now? She was just glad that these things were taking their sweet time with crashing into the earth. How thoughtful.

"Three cigarettes," she muttered as she opened the box and pulled out one of the tobacco sticks. She lit her lighter and ignited the end of the cigarette. She inhaled, removed the cigarette from her mouth, and breathed out the smoke. She sighed and shook her head. She was killing herself. That's what everyone told her, and she wasn't sure if she kept doing it because she didn't believe it or just to annoy those trying to get her to stop.

After a few minutes of just contemplating things as the world crashed down around her, Alma shook her head and began to type on her computer. Okay, screw this. Screw waiting! She's getting in the game right now, whether Lala wants to help her or not.

 **almandCream (AC) has begun pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

AC: yo

AC: so

AC: i dont really care what youre doing right now

AC: youre getting me into the game

AC: understand?

MD: oh! uh...wow that was sudden

MD: yeah sure

MD: i can help you out here

MD: just give me a moment

AC: right okay

AC: ill talk to you when i get in the game

 **almandCream (AC) has ceased pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

Okay, maybe she didn't have to be so rude to the girl, but she didn't care at the moment. She was going to get into this game. She was getting impatient, so of course she was going to show just how annoyed she was.

After a moment or so, there were a few thumps coming from downstairs, and Alma assumed those were the sound of the machines being set into her house. A card appeared next to her on her bed and she grabbed it. Alma captchalogued the laptop, as well as her lighter and cigarette pack, and walked downstairs, a cigarette still in her hand. She was going to use this thing for all it's worth. She only had two left, after all.

Walking downstairs, Alma took a look around the room and noticed that her father wasn't there. Sure, there was a few items around the room...well, actually, not a few. A whole lot of items. Mostly just two by fours and tools such as hammers, saws and screwdrivers. There was a little workshop table off to the side, and many other woodshop objects Alma couldn't care about.

The redhead really didn't know where her father had went, and she wasn't sure if she cared. Well, she cared, actually. Despite what some may think, and despite her annoying mutters about him and his fascination for woodshop, Alma did care about her father. He had taken care of her her whole life...of course she cared about him.

Well, whatever. Mixed with all the clutter in the room was a few machines that...she had no idea what they were used for. Sure, Echo left some information for the whole group in the group chat, but Alma hadn't paid attention to any of that. After the part mentioning meteors, Alma had basically stopped reading and started listening to music.

Alma then walked over to all of the machines. Okay, yeah...these all look pretty complex. She had no idea what any of these machines do...she should have read the group chat, huh? Well, too late for that now.

After a while of just walking around and looking at the machine, Alma kicked the Cruxtruder. She was assuming she needed to open this thing. Alma looked at the valve on the side of the machine. She put her hands on the valve and attempted to turn it, but it wouldn't budge at all. Okay, yeah, this thing was stuck.

Alma groaned and then looked around. Didn't her dad have a crowbar around here? She remembered something along the lines of that. Alma looked all around the downstairs area, looking for this crowbar that should probably exist. She was pretty sure this crowbar existed. She eventually found it underneath a pile of wood.

Alma dug out the crowbar and examined it. Right, okay. This looked like it would work, and if it didn't...Alma had no idea what would.

The redhead moved back to the machine and stuck her crowbar underneath the lid Once she situated the crowbar, she took a deep breath and pulled on the crowbar. The lid was on a lot tighter than she thought, though. The lid didn't budged.

"Oh, come on…" she muttered as she pulled harder. There was a slow popping sound as the lid would slowly come off, a sign that she was making progress. That only made her pull on the crowbar even harder, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. After a while longer of pulling on the crowbar, the lid suddenly popped off into the air, sending Alma backwards and hitting her back on the edge of a table.

"Ah!" Alma exclaimed, putting a hand to her back, trying to rub where the table made contact with her. "Son of a bitch...that hurt."

The redhead shook her head and looked at the machine, which was now open. From the machine shot out a burgundy red dowel. It was shot out with such aggressivity that it hit the ceiling, making a dent in the material. Following the dowel out was a burgundy red, seizure ball sprite.

Okay, right. Now she's getting in familiar territory. She remembered the sprite from Echo's attempt to get into the game. She knew what to do with this thing, but...she didn't know what to throw in it.

After running through the options of what items she could throw in, she brought out her lighter and stared at the light blue device. Mm...eh. What the hell? She had more of these anyways. All scattered around the house.

She tossed the lighter into the sprite and then walked over to pick up the dowel. There was a flash, of course, and what followed next was what could be compared to an angry fireplace. You know, the crackle of fire? Except really, really loud.

"Well, that's annoying…" Alma muttered as she looked back at the sprite. It just looked like a ball of fire with a face on it. There were no special features. The face wasn't even all that interesting. It looked like what you'd draw on a stick figure man. Though, honestly, she was expecting the sprite to look like the Bic mascot guy. You know, the one with the black ball head?

Alma then took her dowel and moved it over to the totem lathe. She had seen Echo do this, and now it was all coming back to her. The dowel was now being carved up by the machine as Alma brought out her headphones. She put them over her ears and then began to blast rock music in her ears to tune everything out.

After a few moments, the dowel was done, and Alma grabbed it before walking to the Alchemiter. She put it on the scanner...thing, and then waited for the results. Once the process had finished, she hopped onto the platform and picked up the small, burgundy red item.

It was...soft, circular and kind of heavy. It was a stress ball. Alma frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. Was this supposed to mean something? Is this game making fun of her anger issues? Wow, okay, thanks, game.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Alma muttered as she attempted to throw it at the wall. It hit the floor before it hit the wall, though, and she shook her head. Great, now she's clueless. What's a girl gotta do around here to figure out what she's supposed to do?

Alma hopped off the Alchemiter and grabbed the stress ball. She put it in her pocket and looked at the other machines. She looked at the Cruxtruder and noticed she only had an hour to figure out what to do. She groaned and continued her aimless wandering.

Minutes passed, and they kept passing. About half an hour later, Alma had resorted to hitting everything to see if she got any different results. The only result she got from this was a banged up foot. Her phone was in danger of dying, so she stopped her rock music. By now she was so stressed out that she was swearing at everything, even that annoying sprite, which wasn't even really doing anything besides being loud.

Twenty more minutes passed and Alma sighed, taking out the stress ball once more. She tried throwing this thing at just about everything, but it was pointless. She didn't know what to do. Not only that, but her anger was making it hard for her to think straight. By now she was just a ball of rage and swears.

Alma then took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. She opened her mouth and inhaled. She slowly closed her eyes and shut her mouth. She exhaled out her nose. This made her feel a bit better, but there was still a lot of anger. Just keep trying it...just remain calm.

 _Inhale_

Wait a second, this was a stress ball. She was actually getting mad over a stress ball. How dumb was that? How dumb was she?

 _Exhale_

Okay, her mind was getting cleared out now. What could she do with this thing? Obviously not throw it. She had tried that once before, and that didn't work.

 _Inhale_

Think about it, Alma. Your friends need you in the game. They're sure to get into a whole load of crap, and you gotta protect them. What do you need to do?

 _Exhale_

Oh, wait! She has to squeeze it! Why hadn't she tried that yet? You'd think she didn't know what a stress ball was. Man, that was dumb of her. She shouldn't get angry at herself, though...she was under a lot of stress.

 _Inhale_

Alma, eyes still closed, shook her head. Okay, time to do this. The world is ruined, and everything's crashing down around you. Only one thing left that you can do.

 _Exhale_

Alma opened her eyes, a sudden anger suddenly rushing back towards her. Her whole world was ruined! She wasn't going to let this game get the best of her! She then squeezed the stress ball as tightly as she could. There was a flash of burgundy red, and soon after that the whole house disappeared.

=== Alma: Do the game things.

* * *

 **Over two thousand views? Wow...woooow. You guys, whoever is still reading up to this part, you are all amazing. I didn't expect it to get this far, but...wow. Thanks for staying around so far. Working on this had truly been fun, and I'm glad some people really enjoy it. Uh..seriously, though, thanks. I appreciate it. Um...I'll see you next week, though, guys. See ya, and have a good spring break for those who have it.**


	32. Doing the Game Things

Once her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in light, Alma walked to her room, the sprite following her there. She knew what to do now. She was going to show this game who's boss, and show it that no one messes with her. No one!

Alma walked into her room and grabbed a crappy pair of Apple earbuds that didn't work anymore. These things broke a long time ago. The music doesn't even go through the buds. It's like they're not even plugged into the phone. She looked at the sprite, which had apparently grew a body and arms, kind of looking like the Bic guy if he had no legs, and then tossed the earbuds at it.

There was another flash and once that subsided, the sprite had changed, as you would have expected. If you're surprised...why are you even reading this?

The sprite honestly didn't change much, but now it had a comically big pair of headphones on it's head, with a few music notes flying out of it's head. There was a small wire with a headphone jack hanging down from the sprite's headphones.

"Yo yo yo, my dawg," the sprite said with a wide grin on it's face. Oh, yeah, it had also adopted a wide, cartoonish, goofy grin. "Welcome to the game. You die in the game you die in real life, gurl."

"...I did not expect you to sound like a sassy...woman?" She had no idea. Is that a woman's voice or what? It's pretty neutral, actually. She'll just say it's a woman. "You know what? Whatever. I got things to do. Let me take a look outside."

Alma then walked downstairs and looked out the window. She expected something looking pretty nice. You know, maybe some type of town you'd find in pokemon or something, but no. That was definitely not what she found.

If she had to use one word to describe this land, it's be wasteland. Land of Waste and Land. That's good, right? For as far as she could see, it just looked like one big, dry field. There were cracks in the ground and small indents in the ground, most likely where running water used to be. There were a few fallen trees here and there, obviously dead, and had long since been dead. It really didn't look like a lot of things lived here.

"Oh, wow," Alma muttered as she looked out at the dry, barren field. "What the heck happened here?"

"Pft. You don't know?" The sprite asked as she floated over to the teenager. "There's obviously a lack of rain here. Everything's all gone and dried up. Mmhmm."

"Man, you sound so sassy," she said with a shake of her head. "Does this place even have a name?"

"Land of Curses and Storms," the sprite said. Alma was pretty sure she could hear music coming from those earbuds in the sprite's head. She wasn't going to comment on this, though.

"Right, and what do I do here?"

The sprite laughed. "You think I'm just gonna tell you?" he asked. "Uh-uh, gurl. You gotta figure that out on your own. The least I can tell you is that this is all your denizen's fault. Gonna have to teach them a lesson."

Alma blinked and nodded. "Yeah, right, okay." Well, what a nice guide she had. Wouldn't tell her anything...really useless, but she's sure she didn't need much help. She's got this.

"Well, I'm going to make some cool stuff," Alma said, pulling out the captchalogue card that held her darts. She definitely remembered how to alchemize things. She paid attention to that when Echo was doing all that stuff.

=== Alma: Let the Alchemizing begin!

First thing Alma decided to alchemize was her darts, and her father's power drill. Her father had a lot of tools lying around the house, so she considered herself lucky. Combining the two items came out with...well, it actually looked like the head of a drill. You know, the thing that actually drills into the wall. Just to test it out, Alma threw it at the wall. The drill dart immediately started spinning, and once it hit the wall it started to drill into the material.

Alma smiled and then attempted to pull the dart out of the wall. As soon as her hand touched it, it had stopped drilling. Oh, that's so damn cool. She can't wait to use these things. Her smile turning into more of a grin, Alma then tried to see what else she could combine.

After a while of deciding, Alma grabbed her headphones and then looked at her spider terrarium. She noticed one in particular that really wasn't moving. That thing hadn't been moving for the past few days now, and Alma was pretty sure it was dead. She shook her head and then captchalogued the spider.

Alma, getting a wonderful idea, decided to combine the spider with her headphones. The result actually looked pretty cool. The parts that cover your ears actually looked like spiders, so it'd look like she had two big spiders on her ears. That's just cool. She had also decided to combine the spider with her darts. She was assuming the finishing product was poisonous darts, but she couldn't be sure.

Next up was...actually, she had no idea. Maybe her computer? ...Oh! Wait! Yes! Alma quickly captchalogued her laptop and then combined that with the spider headphones. The result was pure awesomeness. It looked the same as the headphones she made earlier, but now a small computer screen could pop out of the left spider's mouth. Perfect!

Oh, actually, let's see what this makes. Alma then alchemized her cigarettes with her darts, and made...burning darts. Well, not burning. They were just...smouldering slightly. They were still hot, though. Could definitely burn the skin. Well, not what she expected, honestly, but alright then.

Putting all her new items in her capthcalogue deck, which added a few more pages to that giant book of hers, Alma made her way outside, blasting rock music through her ears and probably making herself deaf in the process.

One stepping outside, the redhead noticed that it was unbearably hot out. Seriously, she was already feeling dehydrated. Okaaaay, time to go back in and get some water. Alma walked back into her house and over to the refrigerator. She captchalogued as many of those bottles as she could before heading out again. Oh, oh boy, this was going to be difficult.

"Okay, I'm off," Alma said with a wave goodbye as she walked away from the house. "You just keep being you...sassy, weird thing. Have fun."

"See ya later, gurl," the sprite called back, though Alma couldn't here her due to the headphones blasting music in her ears. Already the heat was starting to get to Alma as she walked across the barren wastelands. This was going to be tough…

=== Alma: Be Phil

* * *

 **Sorry for missing an update, and having it be such a short one. Spring break apparently really screws up your schedules. Probably because I can't be bothered to do things over spring break. Oh well. I'll make it up to you guys, though. The next update will come...sooner thank usual, and I'll still probably have an update on Sunday, so...yeah. Once again, thank you all for staying through all of this. See you next chapter.**


	33. Just a Casual Raid Nothing to See Here

Phil was not having a good time right now. He had just ran into another one of the imps, after about who knows how long of just walking around. The imps looked like freaks of nature. Some had powdered wigs, others had monocles and mustaches. Others had animal features, some looked like skeletons, and others were even on fire. Of course, Phil dismissed them with a bullet or two from his gun, but it was still weird to see.

"You know, you could help me out here," Phil said as he took out his gun magazine and looked inside. Only five more bullets. He'd have to find some ammunition soon, or maybe just another pistol. If he didn't find one or the other, he'd have to use his flag as a weapon. "I don't have unlimited bullets."

"Nah, I think you got this," Gabe said as he rested his hands on the back of his head. There was a grin on his face, and Phil absolutely hated that grin. This guy was...so annoying. "You're doing fine on your own, aren't you?"

"...Fine, whatever." The blonde had way too much pride to say he wasn't doing a good job at killing off these imps. He'd rather lie than admit that to this guy.

"Why are you even following me, then?" he asked. "You don't seem to be helping at all."

"Oh, I'm helping. Much more than you think I am, actually."

Phil was about to say something about that, but his phone suddenly vibrated and he huffed in annoyance. He took his phone out and went to his pesterchum. Oh, this guy. Alright.

 **parallelRatification (PR) has begun trolling patroitRequiem (PR)**

PR: Greetings, Human!

PR: yeah okay hello

PR: person with the confusion name

PR: How, Is, It, Confusing?!

PR: well not really confusing

PR: just that its annoying to read a bunch of pr

PR: but whatever

PR: It, Will, Only, Annoy, You!

PR: Why, Do, You, Bring, This, Up, Every, Time, We, Talk?!

PR: i dont know

PR: whats up?

PR: I, Couldn't, Help, But, Notice, That, You're, Into, The, Game!

PR: I, Can, Help, If, You, Want!

PR: you can help me?

PR: how?

PR: I, Have, My, Ways, Human!

PR: I, Can, Take, You, To, Your, Server, Players, Planet!

PR: oh well that may be useful

PR: Yes, It, Could, Be, Human!

PR: What, Do, You, Say?

PR: well i dont see why nidhfuersh

PR: ...Excuse, Me, Human?!

Phil was unable to respond to the weird troll, since Gabe had knocked his phone out of his hands. He frowned and looked at Gabe. "What the hell was that for?"

"I was just helping out," Gabe said with a shrug as he picked up the phone. He then exited the conversation with the troll, and even blocked him. Just to make sure he doesn't tempt Phil with his offer. He then put the phone in his pocket.

"How does breakin' my phone help me?"

"Well, I won't explain it, since I don't think you can handle it, but it helps more than you think." Gabe then continued walking. "Also, you're phone's not broken. I just cracked the screen a bit."

"Oh, you little…" Phil took a few steps forward and swung his fist at Gabe, putting all his weight behind it. Before he could make contact, though, Gabe stepped to the side, causing Phil to stumble forward to to his momentum.

Before Phil stumbled completely past Gabe, the brown haired boy grabbed Phil's arm and pulled him towards him. They were only a couple inches away from each other. Personal space meant nothing to this guy, apparently.

Gabe, with that grin still on his face, lifted up his sunglasses. Not all the way. Just enough to show off dark, umber eyes. He stared at Phil, his grip too tight for Phil to get away.

"I suggest you don't try that again, partner," Gabe said before chuckling. "We don't want to have any accidents, do we? You don't want to get yourself in trouble, do you?"

Phil, who was uncomfortable with the distance, as well as how this guys carefree composure changed to this, nodded.

Gabe, his grin now turning into a smile, let go of Phil and pushed him away, causing the blonde to stumble backwards slightly. "Good. Glad we're seeing eye to eye."

Deciding it'd be best not to argue, Phil just nodded. "Right, right…" Phil looked around the cobblestone streets, noticing that not many people were out. He looked at his gun once more and decided to change the subject. "I'm going to need more bullets soon."

"You sure about that?" Gabe asked as he resumed walking, and Phil did the same. "You made yourself a polearm, right? I don't think you need much else."

"I prefer guns instead of flags," Phil said with a shake of his head. "They're a hell of a lot more deadly than the flag. I'm patriotic and all, but I also want to stay alive."

Gabe chuckled. "Right, well, at least you got that part right," he said. "You think there's an outpost around here? Some place where they have weapons."

"How am I supposed to know?" he asked. "I don't live here. I just got here like an hour ago, and the only thing Georgie told me was that there's this king I gotta kill or something."

"Right, well, let's go find one. We can find you some weapon to use, I guess." Gabe's attitude was once again more carefree, and Phil was starting to wonder what this guy's problem was. Seriously, that kind of change was...unnerving, in a way. Carefree one moment and then threatening him the next? Definitely something to watch out for.

After a few more minutes of them walking, Gabe stopped, bringing an arm out to stop Phil. Phil walked right into the boy's arm and blinked.

"Why'd we stop?" the boy asked as he looked around. Nope, still looked like colonial buildings. This place practically screamed colonial America. It was actually kind of cool.

Gabe gestured to a nearby building, where the door was slightly open. In the window, Phil could see...were those eagles? ...Yes, those were eagles. Those were eagles wearing red coats and eating at a dinner table. Just when Phil thought this place might be normal.

"I think these people have guns. They look like they're soldiers of the king."

Phil nodded. "Right, so…" he pulled out his gun and looked at the window. Three eagles...five bullets. He could do this. He'd feel guilty for shooting an eagle, but he'd have to get over it. "So you want me to kill them?"

"Or, you know, we could just make it so they can't move." Gabe took out what looked to be the cord to a charger and spun it around. Phil had no idea how that was going to help, but he decided not to ask questions. "Just break open the door and we'll do whatever feels right."

Phil nodded and walked over to the door. Oh, man. This was just like a swat team thing. With a small chuckle, Phil turned to the door and attempted to kick it down. ...that didn't work, but it at least opened, so that's good. Phil stepped inside and pointed his gun at the eagles. "Okay, no one move!"

Gabe casually walked in and then tossed the cord at one of the eagles. The cord, seeming to develop a mind of its own, wrapped itself around the eagle and tied it's arms to it's body, making it unable to use its arms.

The other eagles stood up. Phil shot one in the leg and it fell over with a squawk. It wasn't dead, but it was definitely injured.

"Who else wants to eat lead?" The blonde looked at the other birds. None of them dared to move.

"I think we did it," Gabe said as he pulled out a rope. He then walked over to the eagles. "Alright, get in a group you guys." The eagles reluctantly huddled together, and Gabe tied them all with his rope, that seemed much longer than it looked. Either that or it just got longer whenever Gabe needed it to, though that sounds ridiculous.

"I'm going to go look around," Phil said over the sound of some angry eagle screeches. They definitely weren't happy with him, but whatever. These guys were the enemies. He couldn't care less. Phil then walked through the outpost, trying to find anything he could use.

Eventually, he came across a nice flintlock pistol with nice designs on the barrel. Crowns with crossed swords behind them. Phil knew why some people decorated their guns, but jeez, this was almost too much effort to put into something. It was practically an art piece.

"I'm taking this," Phil decided as he looked over at Gabe, who was collecting all of the other guns in the building. "Uh...what are you doing? Can you use those?"

"No, but you think I'm going to arm these guys?" Gabe chuckled. "Use some common sense, kid."

"I'm fifteen, y'know." The blonde walked over to the door, passing the angry eagles once more, who were screeching up a storm and probably attracting a lot of attention. These guys should just shut up. "Not a kid, if you ask me. How old are you?"

"Sixteen." Gabe joined Phil at the door and guided Phil out. He stared at the rope around the eagles and took a small step forward. He snapped his fingers and the rope untied himself and jumped into his open hand. Before the eagles could react, he rushed out the door and slammed it shut. "Now let's get going. I don't want my eyes clawed out. Not my idea of a fun time."

Phil nodded. "Yeah, right, let's go," he said as he quickly ran away from the outpost, Gabe following close behind. The sounds of eagles squawking angrily started to slowly fade into the distance as they ran off.

=== Phil: Be Echo

* * *

 **Happy Easter everyone who celebrates it! Hope you're having a good time! I myself have gotten sick off of candy, but oh well. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter. Not entirely proud of it, but we're moving along nicely in the story at least. This just provides some tension between Phil and our visitor here. Anyways, see y'all next chapter.**


	34. Lost Hope

"Hope, can't we just rest for a while?" Echo asked as her friend continued to drag her. She had no idea how long they had been walking for, but it seemed like forever now. They had picked up a grist trail earlier. Echo was certain that was left behind by her sister. Even though they lost the trail a long time ago, Hope was still being very energetic and optimistic as she continued to drag Echo through the foreign land.

"But we're close, I'm sure of it!" Hope had exclaimed, and though Echo tried to pull her hand away, Hope's grip was as strong as a vice. The girl was strong, and Echo knew this from experience. She saw Hope break a small glass cup once just from squeezing it too hard. She had offered her own, oddly decorated cup in apology, and they hadn't talked about it much since, but Echo remembered it only because it showed that Hope was strong. Unnaturally so.

"And how can you be so sure?" Echo asked with a tilt of her head. As they spoke, Hope slowed down from a sprint to a casual stroll. They had been having bursts of energy every once and awhile, and they'd both make good use of them. Though they had go back to a walk once they were out of energy, or when there was conversation between the two.

"Like I said, Echo, I have my ways," Hope said as she continued walking. Echo had expected an answer like that. This girl never told her anything. It was always some weird, rather vague saying here and there, but she never gave a definitive answer.

"And I'd like to know what those ways are," Echo muttered before shaking her head. As they walked, she adjusted her glasses and looked around. The view was the same as it was ten minutes ago. The same as it was half an hour ago. Heck, the same as it was an hour ago. It was just empty field upon empty field.

It was like some kind of limbo, Echo thought. Two kids in a barren field, looking around for someone they wouldn't be able to find. Limbo often was the place for infant souls who had died before they had gotten baptized. Now, Echo wasn't sure if she believed in that religious view. If anything Limbo was just a place you went when you died; stuck between a heaven and hell that you'd never be able to get to. This seemed...very similar to a Limbo.

A sudden beep had interrupted her thoughts. Her glasses lit up and showed her pesterchum feed. She found herself looking at a greeting from Phil. She hadn't talked one on one to this kid in a long time. What on earth did he have to say?

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has begun pestering troubleTimes (TT) **

PR: hey

PR: so i know we dont talk very much

PR: but i have a question for you

TT: Oh?

TT: Well, this is a surprise.

TT: What is it?

PR: so this guy here just happened to come into my house and made me get Lala into the game.

PR: then he made me stop talking to this one dude that i talk to sometimes

PR: and i was just wondering if you know him

TT: What's his name? I may be able to tell you, but you know most of my friends, don't you?

PR: honestly i thought you only had the people in our group as your friends

PR: but this guy says he's a friend of yours

PR: his name is gabe

PR: wears a red jacket and sunglasses

PR: you heard of this guy before?

TT: Gabe?

TT: I don't think I know anyone like that...sounds vaguely familiar, though.

TT: I don't think I can help you in this matter.

TT: I don't know anyone named Gabe.

PR: ...so he was lying to me

PR: right okay good to know

PR: guess i gotta talk to this guy about that

TT: Don't you have something to say?

PR: what do you mean?

TT: I helped you figure out this mystery

TT: I gave you some useful information.

TT: I believe a thank you is in order?

PR: ha yeah right

PR: youre funny

PR: anyways i think im going to go now ill talk to this guy about it when i get the chance

PR: im running from eagles right now

PR: have fun

TT: ...Right. Okay. Good bye.

 **patrioticRequiem (PR) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

Echo frowned and turned the screen off, her glasses now being used for their intended function. Now that her vision wasn't blurry, she looked around and noticed Hope was nowhere to be found. She frowned and looked at her hand to see that no one was giving her the death grip. She shook her head and looked around once more.

"Hope?" she called out, but her call was met with only silence. No one was around, and now the fields were definitely looking similar to that of a Limbo. By now, the sun was beginning to set as well, giving the sky an orange tint. Echo knew it would be night time soon, so she had a few options. Either find a city and stay there for the night, or look for Hope and possibly spend the night alone.

 _Go find your friend….you may need the help…?_

Echo's ears perked up slightly and she looked around. That thought...wasn't her own. She wouldn't be so questioning. She always had definite answers. She had similar thoughts to this, but she hadn't yet questioned where they were coming from, but now...it was just odd.

"If someone's out there, please show yourself," she said aloud as she began to walk in the direction Hope had been dragging her. Where had she gone to? The girl wasn't that fast. Sure, Echo couldn't keep up with her even on a good day, but still, she was never that fast.

Echo walked along the field, thinking about the decisions that had led up to this moment. Had she actually wanted to play this game? If only she could go back in time, then. She would certainly stop herself by now, but...that wasn't possible now, was it? No one could go back in time. Besides, changing the past is impossible when you think about the concept. If you change the past, that meant it was supposed to happen. You didn't change anything, because it had already happened. It was...a confusing concept, certainly.

Suddenly, the sound of a gun firing filled the air, interrupting the silent, almost peaceful moment in time. Echo looked at the source of the noise. As soon as she assessed the situation, her brain thought up the worst outcomes. Someone died, or was going to. With that thought in her head, she quickly ran towards the source.

At the first sight of movement she stopped. The setting sun barely provided enough light to see by now, and she had to squint to make out this scene from her position.

What she saw was...Hope. Hope wasn't alone, however. Surrounding her were three of those awful ogre creatures. Two of them had shotguns while one had deadly looking claws. The ogres looked ready to attack at any moment.

Echo was about to call out to Hope, but decided against it. She'd just draw attention to herself. Instead, she equipped her broom weapon and slowly approached the inevitable battle.

Hope was the first to react. After a few moments of staring at her opponents, she ran toward one of the shotgun-armed ogres. As the monster raised its weapon, Hope had bounced into the air and, by some miracle, was able to land on the shotgun of the ogre. It was big enough to act as a platform, and the ogre was strong enough to support her weight.

The girl's next move was to jump off of the weapon and into the air. Echo noticed something glowing in her fist as Hope delivered a blow to the ogre's face. The ogre stumbled back as Hope landed on her feet.

The ogre with the claws then swiped at her. It was an attack that would surely have killed her had it made contact, but instead Hope leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding the claws. The ogre didn't anticipate this and was caught off balance. Hope rushed towards the beast's legs and punched one of them before quickly turning around and punching the other.

The ogre fell down due to the blows to its legs and was unable to get back up. Hope delivered one more blow to the ogre's face and it disappeared, leaving behind one big pile of grist. Hope didn't celebrate just yet, though. She had two enemies left, so she turned to the other ogre, who aimed a shotgun at her.

Echo had been watching the group closely. So closely, in fact, that she almost didn't notice she was approaching the other ogre. This was the one Hope had attacked, but didn't kill. The ogre had noticed her before she herself had noticed it, though.

The ogre opened it's mouth, but instead of letting out some type of battlecry, like Echo had expected, it sucked in as much air as it could. It's chest was poking out due to how much air it had stored. It then looked down at Echo and blew all that air right at her.

Echo didn't know what she expected from a move like this, but she certainly wasn't expecting the bitter coldness that came from the ogre's breath. It was like standing in a snowstorm...without a coat on.

Echo winced from the cold and attempted to quickly kill this ogre before she received some sort of frostbite. She brought her weapon out and leaped at the creature. All the wind moving in her direction made her movements slow, and she didn't jump nearly as far as she preferred, but she still ended up close to the ogre's legs.

With no hesitation, Echo jumped into the air and stabbed the blade of her spear-like weapon into the ogre's chest. She refused to pull it out, and as she was brought back down to the ground she ended up cutting a big hole in the chest of the ogre. Before she reached the bottom of the ogre's torso, it disappeared, causing her to fall the rest of the way to the ground, landing on her back. Echo groaned and stood up. Two down, one more to go.

Echo looked to where her friend was, but what she saw soon afterwards was enough to make her gasp, which was a rare reaction for her.

She saw that Hope had attempted to bounce into the air to deliver a blow to the monster's face, but she didn't succeed. Instead, the ogre took it's gun and smacked Hope back to the ground with it. She hit the ground with a thud and sat there for a moment before slowly trying to get up.

Hope looked to be in pain, and it was enough to make Echo wince. The Canadian knew very well that her friend wouldn't be able to fight for much longer. No human could go through that with minor injuries. She needed to get in there.

Before Echo could rush in, though, Hope looked at Echo and pulled a small, square shaped device out of her pocket. She then tossed it to her like you'd toss a Frisbee. "Echo, catch!"

Due to her reflexes, Echo caught it right before it hit her in the face. She captchalogued the device and then ran to the ogre, but before she could make it there, the creature raised its gun, aimed it at Hope, and pulled the trigger.

Hope covered her face with her arm as the spread of bullets flew towards her at a speed that was too fast for Echo to process. Echo had almost instinctively covered her eyes when this happen. Soon remembering the trouble she was in, though, she moved her hand away from her eyes only to find that Hope was gone. She wasn't anywhere to be found. Did...did she die?

Echo turned to the ogre, who looked almost as confused as she felt. She didn't hesitate in killing it, though. She dismissed the ogre with a stab to the gut. Once the monster disappeared, she turned back to where Hope was standing moments ago.

She truly was nowhere to be found. Echo slowly stepped towards the spot where her friend was standing seconds ago, her eyes scanning the surrounding area. What happened? There wasn't even any blood. ...maybe if a player dies, their body disappears instead of being left behind? Oh god…

A new feeling began to spread over Echo. She was panicking. She was panicking and...nervous? She was nervous? Maybe even scared. Had she ever felt scared before? Well, statistically speaking, she must have felt scared at least once, but now...she never felt so fearful.

Echo put a hand to her chest. Her heartbeat was uneven. It wasn't going at a steady pace...was it going faster? This was so strange.

 _"Okay, Echo, deep breaths. Try to calm yourself down. Go back to your normal self now. Keep your thoughts steady. Think, think...what do you do?"_

Echo then remembered the item Hope had given her. Well, not given. More like tossed at her. She took out the captchalogue card and noticed the item was waiting for a password. She cancelled the process and the item ejected itself, falling to the floor.

Echo picked up the object and turned it around in her hands. It was a small black square, and in the middle there was a circle of glass. Inside the circle there was a small, red arrow pointing to the left. No matter where Echo moved it, it continued to point to the left. What was this? Some sort of compass?

Echo shook her head and, still breathing deeply, tried to figure out how to use this thing. There didn't seem to be any buttons. She lightly shook the device to see if it would do anything. There was a small beeping sound and red words suddenly appeared behind the glass, like it was a digital compass.

" _Five hours left until you reach your destination,"_ the words read, and Echo frowned. What kind of object was this? Was this what Hope meant when she said she had her ways? This device just told her where to go? But...where was it leading her to?

Echo decided that using the device was better than nothing, so, instead of questioning it, she followed the compass-like device's advice. She turned to the left and began walking. Now it was silent. There was no one out in this seemingly endless field but her. No one else. With the moon rising into the sky, spreading darkness across the land, it truly was starting to feel like a Limbo.

=== Echo: Be Lala


	35. A Dead Planet with Gross Frogs

The story now turns to Lala, who was busy exploring the lovely new world she had created. Well, it was far from lovely, actually. All of this dead wildlife and sick frogs hadn't put Lala in a good mood, but she still pushed on. She had ran her hand across every surface she could, trying to get a good feel for the land around her.

As Lala was running her hand along a fallen tree, her phone suddenly buzzed, notifying her that she had a new message. Lala took her phone out and immediately knew who it was from. She didn't even have to read the name to know who this was. This was always the greeting she gave her.

 **romanticExpository (RE) has begun trolling medicalDirectory (MD)**

RE: hey (utie

RE: i heard that you got into the game

RE: howz it going zo far?

MD: oh right hello!

MD: its not as fun as i thought itd be

MD: theres a lot of sick frogs everywhere i guess

MD: and dead trees and stuff

MD: its sad :(

RE: ...wait

RE: did you zay frogs?

MD: um...yeah.

MD: what about these frogs.

RE: :)

RE: i know what youre talking about for on(e!

RE: i waz in your pozition on(e!

RE: i had all thoze hop beaztz going around everywhere in my game!

MD: oh really?

MD: so you can help me out here?

RE: yeah i think zo

RE: wherez your weird frog temple?

MD: ...frog temple?

RE: yeah a frog temple

RE: its got zomething you need in it

RE: do you know where it iz?

MD: i...dont see one

RE: ...thatz weird.

RE: it may be on one of your friend'z planetz, then.

RE: look, you just look around, alright? talk to me on(e you find it.

MD: oh..okay sure

RE: later (utie.

MD: yeah bye

 **romanticExpository (RE) has ceased pestering medicalDirectory (MD)**

Well, that was unfortunate. Lala sighed and put her phone back in her pocket. She was expecting some actual help from her. That girl always flirts with Lala and makes her uncomfortable. The least she could do as an apology is to explain to her what to do. Now she's apparently looking for a frog temple, and she had no idea where she would find that.

Lala suddenly remembered something and looked around. Where was her raccoon friend? That thing usually followed her around everywhere when she went outside. He didn't get sick too, did he? Hopefully not. Little Robbie (She just came up with that name now) was such a sweet little creature. She'd hate to see him in pain.

Lala suddenly heard a ribbit coming from behind her. She turned around and noticed a small frog bouncing her way. She smiled and picked up the little creature. Aw, look at this guy. He was adorable.

"Hey there, little guy," the animal lover said as she pat the frog on the head, being as gentle as she could be. "You okay there? You must be terribly sick...I wonder if there are more of you..."

The frog, in response, only let out a croak before turning around and hopping out of her hand. The frog then began to bounce away.

Lala giggled and, having nothing better to do, followed the little amphibian. "Okay, Mr. Frog, lead the way!" Where was this frog going to take her? Who knows! It was going to be a surprise adventure!

So, the girl skipped after the frog. Yes, she actually skipped. That was something she was doing right at this moment. It was certainly an odd sight. A girl skipping after a frog through a field of dead trees, flowers and animals, but it was a warming sight. Even though there was a lot of death surrounding her, Lala remained cheerful.

Lala didn't know how much time she had spent chasing the amphibian. Dark clouds covered the sky, blocking out the sun. Sure, she could just take out her phone, but the thought never occurred to her during that amount of time.

Eventually, though, the frog stopped on top of a hill and turned to face Lala. It croaked once more before jumping over the hill. Lala followed to the top and looked over the land from her spot on the hill.

What she saw was...a whole lot of frogs. Like, ten is already a lot for Lala. She never really seen frogs before, so any amount more than three was considered a lot of frogs for her, but right here...there were tens of frogs, all croaking and ribbiting and bouncing around each other.

"Woah…" Lala muttered as she began to walk down the hill. As she walked down, she was able to get a closer look at some of the frogs, and she quickly realized the problem here.

These frogs were definitely sick. So very sick. They had big red bumps on them. And not like warts that you'd find on a frog. These things were at least the size of a ping pong ball, and they were dotted all around the amphibian bodies. They were even pulsating. It was so disgusting that just looking at it was enough to make Lala feel nauseous.

"Oh, you poor things," the girl muttered as she picked up one of the infected frogs. She didn't care if she caught some germs. She had hand sanitizer with her, so she could clean herself up if need be. She ran her hand along the frog's back, getting a feel for the bumps.

The bumps were all squishy, and poking them made Lala's stomach protest, threatening to have her puke all over the poor frog. Despite this, she pressed down gently on the bump, and the frog let out a quick, surprised ribbit before hopping out of her hands.

Lala winced at hearing the creature in what was most likely pain. She shook her head and looked at her fingers. There was some liquid on her hand. It was like puss, sort of. Ew, that's so gross.

Lala crouched down and ran her finger along the dead grass to wipe it off. The grass wouldn't mind, surely. It was already dead, so it's not like they could disagree anyways.

Once Lala wiped off the residue, she stood up and brushed anything remaining off of her hands. Right, well, it was going to take a while to help these poor things. It's going to take more than just her medical kit to fix all these frogs. More than half of them had these giant pussbags on their bodies. It must feel awful…

Lala sighed, feeling the warm air build up in her mask, making it a bit too warm to wear, but she didn't dare take it off. She may get those pussbags if she were to breath in this air. That'd be awful...and disgusting.

"I'll be back for you guys in a bit, don't worry," she said as she turned around and began to walk back up the hill. She had so much to do now. What time was it, anyways?

Lala reached into her pocket and took out her phone to see the time. What? It was ten o'clock? At night? Her normal bedtime is, like, nine! How the heck has she stayed up this long? All of the excitement must have gotten to her and made her lose track of time.

As she began to process how much time had passed since she woke up this morning, she let out a yawn. She needed to find some place to sleep for now, but...where? There wasn't any shelter nearby, now was there? As far as she knew everything on the planet was dead besides these frogs, so finding shelter was unlikely.

Walking back the way she came, Lala let out another yawn, stretching her arms out as she did so. She then noticed a dead tree that happened to still be standing, just slightly off the path. Well...she could use that. She should have brought her sleeping bag…

Lala walked over to the tree and sat down, her back rubbing against the bark of the tree as she slowly slid down to her butt. She rested her head against the back of the tree. It wasn't anything like her pillow back at home. This wasn't a bed. This was a dead planet. This place couldn't be any worse.

Lala let out one more sigh as she slowly closed her eyes. She thought falling asleep was going to be difficult. She thought she'd spend at least half an hour trying to find a comfortable position and then another half an hour just trying to fall asleep. She thought she'd barely get any rest, but instead it was quite the opposite. Once her eyes had closed, the effects of a lack of sleep had gotten to her, and she was out like a light.

Little did she know that, while she was silently drifting off to sleep in what could only be described as a wasteland, a certain raccoon had suddenly appeared with a green flash. The raccoon walked over to her, being as quiet as possible. The animal sniffed her, trying to see if she was hurt at all. Afterwards, the raccoon crawled into the girl's lap and it's ears perked up. The creature looked back and forth, looking like it was ready to move if need be. He was defending the girl, and he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to her.

=== Lala: Be Echo

* * *

 **I am so sorry about this update being so late! I had a long road trip to a convention in Pennsylvania. I couldn't really update my story much at all, and once I was there I was too busy to do much else. But...I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you so much for reading this far. It means a lot. Hopefully I can get a chapter up next Sunday and actually be on time. Until then, though, have a good life!**


	36. A Fallen Comrade

Echo's eyes opened and she looked around. Daytime? Daytime? Since when was it daytime? Last time she checked it was nighttime, and the moon was just starting to set...she didn't fall asleep, did she? She would have known if she had passed out or something.

The Canadian sat up and looked noticed that the device she had received from her possibly late friend was on the ground. She frowned and lifted a hand up to adjust her glasses, which were lopsided on her face, and then grabbed the device.

" _One hour left until you reach your destination,"_ the words on the device read. She shook her head and and stood up, brushing any dirt her clothes may had caught. One hour left? Where on earth was this thing taking her?

Echo quickly decided there was only one way to go, which was where the device was directing her to, so she kept moving. She still couldn't see any cities around. This place was so isolated, that it wasn't a surprise that the people here had little thoughts for each other. What with being so far away, it must be difficult to care for anyone, especially if they didn't have internet, or a source of range communication.

Echo was actually rather lucky that she ever had internet on that island of hers. Without it, she'd only have contact with her sister, which wouldn't be preferred. Really, the internet was how she had gotten her friends. Without it, she would be alone.

The girl knocked herself out of her thoughts and looked down at the device, waiting minute by minute to see the number go down. With every step she took, her feet cried out in protest. She had been walking ever since she had found Hope, which was yesterday. She had to wonder how she managed to get this far.

Of course, she was also wondering where this device would take her. Would it be important? Somewhere she needed to go? Some way to fix her problems? Some town where the answers would lie? It had to be important for Hope to try and give it to her. Hope was an odd girl, but she wouldn't do something she didn't deem worth it.

Echo sighed as minute after minute passed. She kept wondering about everything. Her mind then went on the topic of her friends. What was happening to her friends? What was going on with Phil and this mysterious person named Gabe? It sounded familiar, certainly, but…she had no idea why, which frustrated her to no end.

Then there was the problem of if everyone had gotten into the game or not. She wasn't sure if one of her friends was incapable of their tasks. She hasn't really heard from Lala or Alma in...a long time. Maybe she should talk to them eventually.

Fifteen minutes left. Echo's mind moved onto Hope. Where had Hope gone? It didn't look like she died. There was no blood whatsoever, but...the monsters didn't bleed when they die either. Maybe the game did the same thing to humans? It'd be less of a mess to clean up at least, but the game probably didn't care about what the players do after someone dies.

...oh, what was she doing? She was talking about a video game as if it had a mind of it's own. That's ridiculous. This was a game that she downloaded online. That wasn't right. It couldn't have a mind of it's own. Computers and video games don't have minds of their own. Technology wasn't that advanced.

Another five minutes passed. Ten minutes left, and time seemed to be flying by quickly. Echo thought about where she was now and how impossible her quest seemed. Make these people care for each other. How could she be expected to do that? She barely had the ability to show her own emotions. How could she help people obtain emotion and sympathy. That's something that you're just born with...this is going to be impossible.

And what was this device in her hand, even? That was something she hadn't bothered to question, but since it seemed so important, she had to wonder what it was. Was it some kind of tracker? A GPS of some sort? Could she put coordinates into this thing? If so, she could use this to lead her to just about anywhere...well, assuming that this thing had satellite pictures of this planet, which was highly unlikely. Maybe it was just a tracker…

Why would Hope have one of these things, though? Where did this device lead? What was it tracking? She had already asked herself where this thing was leading her, and she was sure that she wasn't going to get an answer until she reached her destination.

Another five minutes and now Echo was staring at the ground. The device was guiding her in a straight line, so she assumed that she had to keep going straight and didn't bother with the device afterwards. She'd check every once and awhile, but more pressing things were getting her attention, and not this tracker.

Echo then noticed something staining the dark green grass. Along the green grass of the plains, she saw...red. A crimson red; blood red. It was blood. Echo took a step back and shook her head. Blood? Oh dear...right, now this grabbed her attention.

Echo broke out into a sprint, though her feet cried out in protest. The bottom of her feet ached and, from the constant walking, Echo's leg's were going stiff. She wouldn't be able to walk for long, but she wouldn't need to. She was close. She looked at the device. Two minutes left.

Echo had no idea why she felt nervous. She was assuming the worst, most likely, whether she realized it or not. Her brain had always assumed the worst outcome, even if she wanted to be optimistic. There were only so many routes this situation could take.

The canadian suddenly stopped. She adjusted her glasses and stared at what she came across. It was a woman. A very familiar young woman, crumpled on the ground. She was laying on her side, in a pool of blood, and she was staring straight at Echo. Her purple eyes were void of anything. No emotions. No fear, no anger, no sadness, no confusion. No...life.

Echo's heart sank, a foreign feeling of dread rushing over her as her mind went numb trying to find a way to respond. Her brain had practically shut down. She was running on instinct when she preferred to run on constant study and knowledge. Her gut reaction was to run towards the body, and she acted upon it.

"No...no no no," she muttered as she kneeled down next to the body, the blood staining her jeans a dark red. She didn't care right now, though. She lifted the body up into a sitting position and shook the body gently. "Come on. Wake up, please? Wake up!"

Echo had never talked to her sister very much. Heck, they rarely ever got along. They haven't seen face to face on something for years. Never had a friendly conversation without the other walking out of the room in silence, being either annoyed or uncomfortable from the conversation. She shouldn't feel so emotional. It was illogical to feel like this for someone who you barely talked to, but even then, the tears began to fill up in Echo's eyes, and she could do nothing to stop it.

Echo put her head down and let go of the body. It fell down and splashed into the pool of blood. She put her hands to her chest. Her heartbeat was abnormal. It was anything but a constant rate. Echo closed her eyes and listened to the heartbeat as she felt the warm tears trail down her face. She tried to take a deep breath, but it came out shaky, uneven and shallow.

No matter how hard she tried to stay calm, it failed. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her heartbeat continued to be uneven, her mind felt numb and her breathing had gone to a series of shallow inhalations. Echo moved away and sat down. Calm down...calm down…

She tried to focus on something else, but all she could think about was the time she had spent with her sister. She was crazy, yes. She always had that insane nature, but her antics were sometimes amusing. Now...it was gone. She was gone. Her sister was dead.

Echo suddenly let out a sob, and that was when it all went to a downward spiral. She couldn't think, she could barely breath. She couldn't steady herself. She couldn't stand up. She couldn't do anything! She was too overtaken by grief and feelings she had not had much experience with.

Sadness...it was awful! Why couldn't she control this? The brain was a powerful part of the body, and you'd think it could control its emotions, but any attempts she made were for naught. Instead, she opened her eyes and tried to operate her computer glasses, the tears in her eyes making her vision blurry. Alma. talk to Alma. You need Alma.

 **troubleTimes (TT) has begun pestering almandCream (AC)**

TT: Alma

TT: Alma

TT: please answer Alma

TT: you're not dead right?

TT: please pick up

AC: woah hey

AC: calm down

AC: whats wrong

TT: I am excperencing emorions that I a not used to.

AC: ...what?

TT: Sorry, it's hard to type on this while crying.

TT: I need help

TT: I'm crying

TT: I feel sad

TT: I don't know what to do

TT: Help me

AC: okay okay calm down

AC: look i see some imps off in the distance

AC: give me a second to kill them and then ill talk some more

AC: okay?

TT: Okay

TT: Please hurry

TT: And be safe

TT: I don't want to lose you.

AC: um...right

AC: bye

 **almandCream (AC) has ceased pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

Echo sighed and sniffled, still sobbing at an uncontrollable rate. She couldn't handle this. Losing her sister...never getting her back again...she couldn't take it. She just wanted her friends...she wanted her friends now, but...all she could do now was sob, kneeling down next to the dead body of her sister.

Echo: === Be Alma

* * *

 **I got some explaining here. So, I know I promised a chapter where the story centered around Gabe. I had the chapter and everything, but...I didn't like it? It felt poorly written and it just didn't flow very well, nor did it have much relevance. This...has more relevance than what it was before. So I replaced it with an Echo chapter. Sorry about that, but I just could not fix the chapter without having an incredibly late update, and even then it still wouldn't be that relevant. So...I hope you can forgive me for this. I'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again.**


	37. Someone Gets Burnt

Alma sighed as the screen went back into her headphones. She had no idea what was going on with Echo, but it was obviously something serious if it made her cry. Echo hardly ever cried. ...actually, she never cried at all. Alma couldn't remember a time where Echo had said she cried. Though, just because she said it doesn't mean it actually happened…

Alma shook her head and decided to focus on the problem at hand. Right, the imps. She saw them off in the distance, and she decided it would be easier to dispatch them right now rather than waiting for them to attack first.

Alma looked through her specibus to decide what to use. There were so many darts she could use, but she only wanted to use one right now, to see what they could do. So...which one looked the most deadly? Eventually, she decided on the drill darts. Those seemed pretty deadly.

The darts appeared in Alma's hand and the redhead shoved them in her pocket before walking towards the imps. She couldn't get a good look at them, so she didn't know if they were armed or not. She'd just have to hope they weren't, otherwise she might get a face full of bullets, and she was rather certain her darts couldn't stop bullets.

It wasn't long after she started walking that the imps had spotted her. There weren't any trees for her to hide behind, and the land was rather barren and flat. With her colorful clothes in a dry and dull environment, it wouldn't be difficult to see her.

Though, Alma had gotten close enough to get a better look at the imps, and the rifles they were all carrying. Some of them didn't have magazines, but Alma didn't pay enough attention to notice. She was focused on the rest of their looks.

She had heard some descriptions of the imps from the other players, but these guys...they looked completely ridiculous. Big noses complete with mustaches, powdered wigs covered by an army helmet, skeletal hands with pointed fingers, and huge teeth that were poking out of their mouths like a saber toothed tiger.

When the imps spotted Alma, two of them had burst into flames, causing smoke and the smell of burnt imp to fill the air. It was an awful smell and it caused Alma to gag. She pulled the darts out of her pocket and tried to spread them apart, kind of like how a ninja would spread apart ninja stars. They almost fell out of her hands but she managed to keep them from falling.

The imps then charged at her, including the ones with guns. Alma ran straight towards them with a fist full of her drill darts. The redhead was ready to kill.

The first imp approached her and swiped it's bony claws at her. Alma stepped to the side and grabbed a dart with her empty hand. She attempted to stab the imp with the dart, but the imp grabbed her arm before she could make contact.

The imp tightened it's grip on her arm, drawing blood and making her wince. Alma winced and gritted her teeth. The redhead then used her other hand to punch the imp. The drill darts were pointed right at the imp and as soon as it made contact with the creatures skin, the darts all started to drill into it.

The imp screamed in pain and Alma put her foot against the creature's chest and pushed him away, knocking him onto the dexert floor, but taking all of the darts with him, except for the one in Alma's hand. Alma spun around to find any more enemies and found one of the imps taking aim. The redhead's eyes widened and she stepped out of the way just before the imp pulled the trigger. Lucky for her. Well, it would have been bad there been something in the magazine. Instead...nothing fired. Wow. These things weren't the brightest.

Alma heard another imp scream shortly after the "gunshot", but she didn't bother with finding the source. Instead, she took aim with her remaining dart and threw it at the imp. Her aim was off and the dart had only hit the imp in the leg, but it drilled into the imp nonetheless.

Alma smiled and turned around, but when she did she noticed the butt of a gun coming down on her. It hit her right on the top of the head and she winced. She put her hands to her head and backed up. "Ow! Damn it, that hurt!"

The imp didn't take long to spring into action. It started to wail on Alma, using it's gun as a club as it didn't have an actual magazine in it. Alma turned away from the imp and ran, protecting her head from the opposing blows. Once she was what she thought was a safe distance away, she pulled out her cigarette darts. Time to burn something.

She then turned around in time to see the butt of the gun come down on her once more. The imp had swung at her while she was bringing out her weapons. Alma, though, was ready this time.

Alma grabbed the butt of the gun before it hit her. It hurt her hand, but by now she didn't care. This imp was going to die, and nothing was going to stop that. Alma pulled the gun out of the imp's hands and shoved one of the smouldering darts right onto the imp's forehead, causing the creature to scream in pain.

Alma gritted her teeth and pressed the dart further into the imps head, using all of her strength to push the dart. Eventually the imp died and exploded into grist, but it's gun stayed behind. Alma decided to hold onto it until the battle ended. The only two imps left were the ones that were on fire, and Alma was fairly certain that smouldering darts wouldn't hurt these things. Right...time to smack them with a gun.

"Well? Come at me!" Alma shouted, a cocky grin on her face. She had gotten rid of three of the original five imps, and by now the adrenaline was started to get to her head. She was unstoppable! She could fight these last two weirdos.

One of the two charged at her, dropping it's gun and readying it's claws. Alma tried to swing at the creature, but she swung too late and the imp pounced into the air before she could make contact.

The imp knocked her to the ground and began to claw at her. Alma put her hands against the imp's chest and attempted to push it away, the fire surrounding it burning her hands. The imp wasn't going down without a fight, though, and it continued to swipe wildly. It then gripped onto her hands, fiery claws digging into her skin.

Alma, ignoring the pain to the best of her abilities, finally pushed the imp off and quickly stood up. She grabbed the gun she dropped when the imp pounced at her and ran over to the imp, who tried to get up. Before the imp could get up, however, Alma took her gun and began to pummel the imp mercilessly.

Alma had hit the imp a total of ten times before it finally died. She took a deep breath and looked at the remaining one, who had just stood there watching while she bludgeoned the other one.

The human and the creature stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. The sun was beating down on Alma and causing sweat to get into her eyes, but she ignored it and instead simply narrowed her eyes, tightening her grip on the gun. Her arms started to sting and feel painful, but she tried to stay calm just for this.

"Well? Come on," Alma muttered as she took a step towards the imp. "Unless you plan on leaving, hurry up and get over here."

Without a sound, the imp readied it's claws and charged at Alma. She was ready and swung at the imp. The fiery creature was knocked to the side and landed on it's back. It slowly got back onto it's feet, but Alma was already next to it, gun resting on her shoulder like a baseball bat.

"Time to get a home run!" Alma said before swinging the gun as hard as she could. She couldn't see how far the imp went, since as soon as she hit the imp, he disappeared and was replaced with a pile of grist.

Alma picked the grist up and let out a light chuckle. That was fun! That was so much fun! That last part about a home run? That was so badass! Everything about that was just badass. Alma's chuckle went to a giggle as she went around and picked up the darts that she threw, which luckily didn't disappear like the imp bodies.

It was while she was picking up the last dart that the pain suddenly came in. It erupted all around her body and she gasped, eyes widening from the pain. She looked down at her arms and noticed the damages. Her arms were all cut up and burnt, and her palms were also burnt from pushing the imp away. Blood was streaming down her arm and dropping to the desert floor before being soaked up by the dry ground.

Alma winced as she noticed all of her injuries for the first time. Those things really did a number on her, didn't they? Well...at least she wasn't dead. That was good, right? ...it would be better to not be in any pain, though…

Alma sighed and pulled out the screen inside her headphones. She then went to her pesterchum app and contacted Echo. Time to see if she's feeling any better.

 **almandCream (AC) has begun pestering troubleTimes (TT)**

AC: hey you there?

TT: Yes

TT: I'm here

AC: okay cool you feeling better?

TT: No

TT: I still feel awful

TT: Emotions are awful

AC: well sadness is yeah

AC: everything else is kind of cool

AC: what happened anyways?

TT: My sister's dead

TT: And my friend Hope is nowhere to be found

TT: I don't know what to do

TT: I think I might be lost

TT: And I have an impossible quest

TT: The more I dwell on it the more impossible I think it is

TT: Everything is spiraling down, and I'm going down with it, descending into some sort of phase of overwhelming emotions that I don't know how to react to. My emotions are overwhelming me and making it hard to think.

AC: certainly isn't affecting your vocabulary

AC: ...wait your sister's dead?

AC: i didnt know she was in there with you

AC: or hope

TT: Well now they're not with me

TT: They're gone.

AC: yeah yeah i know

AC: and that sucks

AC: look maybe you should just give yourself a chance to recover then?

AC: just cry it out and wait for the sadness to pass?

TT: No!

TT: I don't want to stay like this!

TT: I want it to go away now!

AC: woah alright okay

AC: jesus

AC: just calm down and...take deep breaths i guess?

AC: look im not good at calming myself down so im not sure how to tell you to do that

TT: Oh my goodness this is pointless.

TT: I'm going to go to some place safe before some imps come in and decide to kill me.

TT: I hope you're not too injured from your fight.

AC: actually im burnt all over

TT: What!?

TT: Are you alright?!

AC: oh yeah just peachy keen

AC: you can tell from all the blood

TT: Oh my goodness, okay. Just...go to some place safe, alright? Avoid any more confrontation and just...don't die, alright?

AC: dying wasn't part of my plan honestly so im fine with this

TT: Okay, well, I have to go now

TT: Be safe, please.

TT: Goodbye.

AC: see ya

 **troubleTimes (TT) has ceased pestering almandCream (AC)**

The screen retracted into Alma's headphones once more and she sighed, doing her best to ignore the burning sensation on her hands and arms. Echo, even though unstable at the moment, was right. She needed to be more careful if these things could spit out flames. As much as she wanted to, Alma couldn't just run into battle like that again.

The sun continued to beat down on her and the redhead decided it was time to leave. Where could she go, though? Go back home or continue to go further into this desert? Her home had air conditioning, which was a big plus, but...she wouldn't accomplish anything while staying at home…

Alma ahook her head and brought out a water bottle from her book modus. She tossed the book the bottle came with to the side, declaring it useless. She twisted the cap off of the water bottle and took a long sip of water. Once that was done, she poured a small amount of water on both of her hands. Thankfully, the imp wasn't that hot. Not a severe burn, which was good considering there was no doctor out here.

The coolness of the water hitting her burnt hands was a relief, and she let out a content hum as she screwed the cap back on. She could just do that if the pain gets too much. Otherwise, she could take the pain. She's dealt with other kinds of injuries when working with her dad on those dumb birdhouses. Just earlier that week she slammed a hammer down on her thumb. She was just happy it wasn't broken.

Alma capthalogued the bottle of water once more before walking away from the former battleground. The heat was absolutely awful, and Alma could only compare it to a really hot summer's day, except she was sure that this heat wouldn't go away...at all.

Alma sighed as she continued walking. She knew very well that this was going to be a long game session. Especially if she needed to get to the other players...good grief, this was going to take forever…

=== Alma: Be Fate


	38. A New Friend

We really haven't heard from Fate in a while, have we? The last time we saw him it was in a completely different timeline! What on earth was the pen man up to, anyways? Well, only one way to find out!

Back on the Flower Planet, as Fate would like to call it, he had been walking for a while now, and he still had that sprained ankle, which gave him a jolt of pain every time he took a step with his bad foot. By now it was more of an annoyance than anything. It wasn't going to kill him, thankfully. Heck, maybe walking would kick out the sprain sooner? ...eh, probably not.

Fate had, by now, left the forest area that he decided to sleep in, and he had also passed by a bunch of bees, and a few of them had offered him some more honey, which Fate had no problem in taking, but he was still suspicious of those big bugs. Those beetles didn't leave a good impression on him. Maybe these bees were just trying to get his guard down.

It didn't stop Fate from stuffing his face with honey whenever he was hungry. A guy's gotta eat, and he didn't think to get any food from his house before leaving for this overgrown garden of a planet, so this was all he had to eat. He wasn't complaining, though. This honey was delicious! It had to be one of the best things he's eaten.

Though, suddenly, as he was in the process of emptying out what was probably his second bottle of honey since he got there, he was tackled by...something, causing him to drop the jar and fall to the ground.

Fate quickly kicked into fight or flight, and he decided on a mix of both. He pushed whatever was on him off of his body and quickly got up, bringing out his giant pen as he did. The pen was prwctically his only effective weapon, though it was basically a baseball bat. Guess he couldn't complain there...

What he saw was actually the little Dersite before. It took a few moments for Fate to remember the thing, but by the time he recalled chasing this thing to the giant flower from earlier, the Dersite decided to run off.

"Hey, get back here!" Fate shouted before running after the tiny Carapacian. He wasn't nearly as fast due to his sprained leg, but he was able to keep the little guy in his sight, which was impressive considering how low to the ground this thing was. It could probably easily hide if it wanted to, but it didn't do that.

As Fate chased after the little guy, running out of breath as he did, he noticed a huge flower off in the distance. Another one of these things? Did he have to follow this guy up the giant staircase? Well, he could try, but he wasn't going to run all the way up the stairs. One, that was too much work, and two, there was the possibility that he could fall, and he wasn't going to take that chance.

Sure enough, unfortunately for Fate, the little Carapacian had indeed run towards the flower. The creature swung open a door that was built into the stem and rushed inside. Fate was quick to follow, only to hear the little footsteps echoing down the giant staircase. Alright, time for another long ascent.

Fate didn't want this to take took long, so he was a bit faster than normal while heading up the stairs, but not too fast. Just enough to break up a sweat and to make his legs grow tired by the time he had gotten up there. Well, no pain no gain, right? At least he was putting up some exercise. It would probably be good for him, anyways…

Fate finally made it up to the top and took a moment to catch his breath. He rested his hands against his kneecaps and looked down at the floor, taking big inhales and exhales. That was when something had hit in the head.

The boy moved his hands from his knees and up to cover his head. "Ow!"

Fate looked up from the floor and noticed the small Dersite sitting in the corner, mashing the button on a small, square shaped device. The device didn't do anything, and instead the little guy decided to throw it at Fate, who dodged it this time.

The Dersite then ran towards the wall opposite of Fate, which was decorated with many flashing buttons and panels. The Dersite then went from left to right, hitting as many buttons as his small arms could reach, which wasn't many, but he was trying his best.

The human in the room tilted his head slightly and took a few steps towards the Dersite. "Hey, what are you trying to do there?"

The Dersite ignored him, however, and reached the last button on the first row. He was going from bottom row to the topmost row he could reach. When the Carapacian hit this button, the door behind Fate suddenly close and petals fell past the window and would fall onto the ground.

Fate blinked and turned around at the door. He grabbed the doorknob and tried to open it, but it refused to budge, and Fate gave up after a couple attempts. The human then turend to the Carapacian and walked over to him.

"What did you do?" Fate asked, looking nervous, though it was understandable. For all he knew this thing could have trapped him in the flower forever. He didn't have enough honey to last forever!

The Dersite turned to the human and got a look on his face that made it seem like he just remembered the human was there. He stared at Fate for a few moments before bringing his hands up and shrugged.

It was then that there was a terribly loud noise, similar to that of a rocket taking off. Fate covered his ears and looked out the window, expecting to see something take off, but instead, the ground actually started to get farther away, and so was everything else on the planet's surface.

A sinking feeling that was most likely not only because of the elevation went through Fate as he realized that this flower head, somehow, was taking off. ...maybe this wasn't an actual flower? Most flowers don't have these kind of control hubs in them. Maybe it was just a ship made to look like a flower?

"Do you know what's going on?" Fate turned to the Dersite once more, but he simply shook his head and looked out the window as well, only to gasp and run away from the window as soon as he noticed their altitude.

"Well, I guess we're staying here for a while," the human muttered as he sat down and pulled out his captchalogue dice. What number did he need? Seven? Yeah, that sounds right. ...no, that's a ten. That just had his other jar of honey...ah! Here we go!

What appeared in front of Fate was the useless utensil he made earlier. The thing with the pencil point as well as a pen point. He then looked at the Dersite and offered him the pencipen. Pencipen? Okay, that was a dumb name. He really needed a better one.

"Hey, maybe there's some paper around here," he said as the Dersite took the item. "Go find some paper or something. We could draw something together."

The Dersite looked down at the pencipen for a few moments before looking at Fate. He nodded and ran off to look around the hub for a few sheets of paper. Meanwhile, Fate stood up and brought out his giant pen. He put the end where the point comes out against the ground and leaned on the other end, watching as everything on the ground - the trees, the rocks, the bugs, the other giant flowers - began to disappear. Hopefully this thing would take them somewhere safe…

A minute or two later of just staring out the window, Fate felt something poke his side. He looked down and saw the Dersite, carrying a few sheets of paper. He offered one to Fate, which the human took with a smile.

"Thanks, fella," Fate said as he let go of his pen, causing it to fall to the ground with a thump. Fate didn't seem to care, and instead sat down with his legs crossed before putting the piece of paper on the ground. "Also, I'm going to have to give you a name, unless you already have one."

The Dersite didn't respond, so Fate was going to assume that was a no. The human nodded and pulled another pen out of his modus. He had a ton of those things in his modus, actually, considering that pens weren't hard to come by, especially in his household. Fate tapped his chin with the pen, trying to think of a good name for this guy.

"What about Speedy?" Fate asked, writing the name down on the piece of paper. The Dersite stared at the name for a few moments before rapidly shaking his head and crossing it out with the pencil side of the pencipen.

"Okay, you don't like that. What about...Tyke? Or Tyrone?" Once again, the two names were written down on the paper, only to be crossed out by the Dersite. "Don't like those either...okay. What about...Noah? Benjamin?"

Once again, those names were crossed off. The Dersite looked up at the human, tapping his pen almost impatiently against the ground as if to say "Got anything actually good?"

"Fine, fine. Don't like those either. I get it. How about...um...I don't know. Ezra?" According to his dad, that was one of the things he thought about naming Fate, but he had decided against it and instead went for Fate. It was the first name that went into Fate's mind and, hey, it was a pretty cool sounding name. Fate then wrote down the name Ezra, expecting it to be crossed out almost immediately.

Instead, the Dersite stared at the name for a few moments before nodding and drawing a circle over it, as well as a check mark, a star, a thumbs up, and the word 'Approved' in a rectangle just big enough to fit it.

"Oh, you like that name?" Fate asked with a smile before nodding. "Okay, cool, so your name is going to be Ezra. What do you want to draw, Ezra?"

The Dersite, who we'll now refer to as Ezra, thought for a moment before putting a finger up to tell Fate to wait a moment. Ezra then took the paper and then rushed off to a small seat, which he put the paper on and began to doodle...something.

Fate smiled and leaned against the glass, his hands behind his head as he watched his new friend scribble quickly on the piece of paper. He wasn't going to expect anything good with handwriting that was that quick, and the fact that the pencipen didn't have an eraser on it. If the guy made a mistake then it'd have to stay.

As Fate watched Ezra scribble on the paper, he yawned, eyes slowly closing. He tried to keep his eyes open a couple of times, but all of those physical activities he's done...so tiring. He rarely ever did something like that, so it was almost bound to make him tired. Fate wasn't going to complain, though. It'd give him an excuse to take a nap. So, slowly, Fate closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. His friend should wake him up if anything happened.

=== Inside the dream world…


	39. Memories from Dreams and a Brief Reunion

Once again, Fate seemed to find himself in the mustard colored dream world that he had gone to once before. He still didn't know what was up with this place, besides the fact that it was a really disgusting yellow color. He knew he could go and talk to Lala here, though. Maybe he should go do that…

Suddenly, as Fate sat up from his bed, he received a whole bunch of memories that were...his? It had to be his, otherwise he wouldn't be remembering this stuff. First he remembered having a conversation with Lala. She was scared. Scared that she was going to die. During the conversation, over pesterchum, of course, Lala had suddenly stopped responding...she died.

Fate remembered the argument he had with Phil. He was angry at him. Very angry. He was rarely ever angry at anyone. He even used caps lock! Like, full on caps lock. That never happens! ...it was his fault, though. He remembered that clearly enough.

Then there was the meeting with the weird kid. Gabe? Was his name Gabe? That...sounds about right. Gabe sounded familiar. He said that he was going to fix everything. Save Fate's friends and...save a version of Fate? Well, Fate and Echo. They were the only ones that were still around...this really happened?

Fate shook his head and looked outside the window to the tower holding his bedroom. He was met with the disgustingly yellow city once more and he stared at the people walking down the streets, living normal lives, and doing normal things. They looked pretty happy, too. What was this place? ...Prospit. It was called Prospit. He remembered that from the last time he fell asleep…

Fate shook his head and climbed onto the windowsill and sat on the edge, looking down at the ground below him. It was a long way down, and it was long enough to make Fate sway slightly and feel nauseous. Thank goodness he could fly in these dreams, otherwise he would be terrified.

Slowly, the boy let go of the windowsill and began to float off of it and into the air. He floated away from his tower and, before he was completely suspended in the air, he decided to not stare straight at the ground and instead look up at Lala's tower. He should go check on her, to see if she's alright. Hopefully she wasn't actually dead...

Fate then floated towards the tower off in the distance. He was trying his best not to look at the ground, but when you're floating through the air with nothing separating you from the ground, it's difficult to ignore the fact that you may fall.

Fate made his way to the tower and poked his head into the room, the rest of his body just outside the windowsill. When he looked inside, he noticed that the room didn't change much at all. It was still in a pretty neat state. A neater state than he could ever hope to get his room into. Well, his real life room, at least. His dream world room was pretty neat, honestly.

Fate floated the rest of the way inside and noticed Lala laying down on the bed, resting her head on her hands and sleeping peacefully. The boy took a moment to stare at the girl. He smiled. As creepy as it was for him to admit this, especially about a friend, she looked so peaceful laying down like that. So nice.

Though, nice things don't always last, as life constantly reminds Fate, as he realized he had to wake her up, just to see what happened. Lala may have some answers about what had happen, and if not...he woke her up for no reason at all. Great.

Fate slowly reached his hand out and grabbed Lala's shoulder. He shook her gently, trying to wake her up. When that didn't work, and Lala continued to sleep peacefully, Fate sighed and shook her harder. Great, this was even worse.

Lala suddenly jolted awake, her real world self falling asleep as her dream self woke up. Lala looked around her room in confusion before she noticed Fate. Her look of confusion went to a look of happiness as she smiled and stood up.

"Hi, Fate!" she exclaimed, and before Fate could reply, Lala put her arms around him and hugged him. She was an affectionate girl. Fate could have assumed much. "It's nice to see you again!"

"It's nice to see you, too," the boy said as he hugged back. A sense of relief seemed to go over him as he tightened his hug just slightly around Lala. She was okay. She was alive. No one had died, as far as he knew. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Lala pulled herself away from Fate and walked towards the window. She liked looking out at the city when she went to the dream world. She's never went to a big city before, so seeing all of the buildings on Prospit, and the people walking around, Lala couldn't help but be interested in everything happening on the dream planet. "Why did you wake me up, though? I was trying to do something on my planet."

"Oh, you were?" Fate asked before shaking his head. Oh, just his luck. It was just like him to interrupt something. It was probably something really important, too. "Sorry, man. I didn't think I was interrupting anything. I was just worried, that's all."

"Aw, you were worried about me?" Lala looked at Fate and giggled. "That's sweet of you, but why were worried? Did you think something happen to me?"

"Well, it's just that...when I got here, I had a lot of memories coming back, and in one of them...you died. Well, you and Alma, I think? Maybe there was someone else...I don't remember."

"Really?" Lala titled her head slightly before walking to the bed. She gently ran her fingers along the bedpost, then the pillows, and then the mattress before sitting down. She put her elbows against her legs and rested her head on her hands. "Do you want to tell me what you remembered?"

"Uh...I guess it wouldn't hurt, would it?" he asked.

"It most likely wouldn't, no." Lala said with a shrug. "You never know about this game. Anything could happen. After all, we're on a dream planet and having the same dream, you know?"

Fate nodded and then began to tell Lala about all he remembered. About the conversation he had with her, reciting as many messages from Lala as he could; about the argument he had with Phil, where he eventually ended up getting blocked by the guy, and the memory of meeting Gabe, where he said he'd end up fixing everything.

"Gabe?" Lala asked with a frown before shaking her head. "I never heard of him before. I haven't heard any of our friends talk about him either. Are you sure that was his name?"

"Well, it definitely wasn't Hope," Fate said with a nod. Fate knew about Echo's friend, Hope. Echo talked about her once or twice over a few video calls. He never got to meet her, though. Fate would have thought Echo was just messing with him, but he's pretty sure Echo has no sense of humor, so that's out of the question.

"Well, I wouldn't think so," Lala said with a small giggle, "but if none of us know him, then maybe…" Lala shook her head. "No..that's not possible…"

"Huh? What's not possible?" Fate asked, sitting down on the bed next to Lala. She looked like she was lost in thought. It was a look Fate had never see Lala give him before. Fate didn't think of Lala as a complex thinker, or someone to put a lot of thought into things, unlike Echo. She seemed more carefree, but...what was she thinking about?

"I guess it could be possible," Lala said before looking at Fate. "What could have happened is that Gabe came from another gaming session. He might have lost his game and decided to come to ours. We may have just been the closest ones he could reach."

"He came from another session?" Wait, you could do that? You could just hotjoin and put yourself into someone else's game? "Did he hack the game to do it or something?"

"No, I don't think you can hack this game," Lala muttered, her voice trailing off as she began to think once more. A few seconds later, she continued. "It's more like he found something that the game didn't expect to happen. He somehow got out of his game session and into ours. Seeing that we were in a rough situation, he must have traveled back in time to help us."

"Travel back in time?" Woah, wait, what!? Fate didn't know anything about time travel! Could he time travel? "What makes you think he time travelled?"

"From what you told me, he showed up sometime after me and Alma had...died, right?" Fate nodded and Lala copied the action. "So, he couldn't have corrected everything unless he went back in time. And he must have known exactly where to go, either because you told him where everything went wrong or...he could just sense it."

"But...travel through time? How is that possible? I didn't know you could do that! Can I do that?"

"Honestly? I doubt that." Lala shook her head. "Look...I'm not saying I know a whole lot about this game, but from what I know...we'll all get powers. We just don't know what those powers are yet. I don't even know yet. We won't know until we get them."

Fate frowned, obviously not happy with that answer, but nodded. "Right, okay, but one more question. You said he traveled through time to get here, but wouldn't the original one come here still? Like...would there be two of them? That's how time travel works, right?"

"The original one?" Lala asked before chuckling. "As far as I know, he is the original one. There will be another one coming along, but he's from a corrected timeline. Eventually we'll be having two of them on our hands, if time travel works the way I think it does."

"Right...I think I'm just going to leave the time travel stuff up to you." This was way too confusing for Fate. Now he's happy that he can't time travel. So, instead, he patted his friend on the back. "Well, weird time traveler dudes aside, I'm glad you're back and not dead."

Lala smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Fate," she said before looking at the pillows. The indent her head left in the pillows was barely there now. That was a good sign that she should leave. "I think I should go back to sleep now, though."

Fate tilted his head slightly, unsure of what she meant at first. He remembered what she meant by falling asleep and frowned, but he still nodded. "Oh, yeah, you have other things to get to. Sorry for making you come here."

"Hey, it's alright, Fate," she said, smiling at her friend. "It was nice having a chat with you, and I got to know about this Gabe guy. It's a nice thing to know about."

Fate nodded and stood up from her bed. "I'll just leave you alone. I'm just going to fall asleep, too."

Lala nodded and waved at Fate. "Goodbye!" Lala then laid down on the bed and closed her eyes. Fate could tell she wasn't asleep just yet, but eventually she'd slip back into the real world. He had to make it back towards his bed.

Fate sighed and moved towards the windowsill, ready to take flight and go back to his tower, but before he could, he suddenly got an overwhelming amount of tiredness. His eyes drooped closed just for a moment, but Fate opened them as quickly as he could. Woah, what was happening?

Before Fate could understand what was happening, though, he received another wave of tiredness and his eyes closed once more, seemingly on their own. This time, he wasn't able to open them again and he passed out, his dream self falling to the floor.

=== In the real world…

* * *

 **Okay, sorry for such a late update. Memorial day caught me off guard, but I just figured out something. This story has over three thousand views, which is absolutely insane. You guys are awesome for leading up to something like this. Seriously, thank you for being here and reading through this. You're all cool dudes.**

 **Though, I can't say much more about it without gushing on, so instead...I'll just see you all in the next chapter.**


	40. Ectobiologist in Training (Part 1)

Fate eyes shot open and he moved away from the window he had been leaning against. He looked around, scanning his environment for what had waked him up. What he saw was the little Carapacian from before, Ezra, grabbing his shirt and pulling on it. The little guy was strong enough to pull him forward, at least. Fate could only assume that was what had woken him up.

"What is it, bud?" Fate asked as he moved his hands to his eyes to rub the sleep off of them. He never felt refreshed after a nap, or a long sleep. He normally felt just about as tired as he did when he had fallen asleep, and sometimes, when he takes a nap, he's even more tired afterwards. It was a surprise that he didn't just skip sleep entirely if it just had the same results.

Ezra pulled on his shirt a few more times before showing him the piece of paper that Fate had handed him before his nap. He had finished the drawing, and was eager to show his new human friend what he had drawn.

Fate frowned and grabbed the paper from the creature before looking over it. So, it wasn't the best drawing ever, but it was better than what Fate could ever do. It was a drawing of Fate, leaning against the window of the weird space craft they were in. It was surprisingly detailed. Outside the window there were a few round objects that Fate assumed were meteors. There was also a few other circles that were scribbled out. That was due to the fact that Ezra didn't have an eraser, so he had just scribbled out whatever he didn't like. He seemed to like most of the drawing, though.

"Wow, this is really good," Fate said as he looked back up at the Dersite. Ezra looked really pleased with himself and clapped his hands together for a job well done. The praise had really gotten him happy, and Fate couldn't help but chuckle.

"You're a cute little guy." The human smile and patted the Dersite on the head before standing up. He then looked behind him, out the window. There were a lot of meteors heading through space, and the ship had avoided all of them, probably on it's own, since Fate sincerely doubted that Ezra could pilot this thing.

Even though the ship moved out of the way of most of the meteors (or were they asteroids? Fate had no idea), Fate had noticed that one of the meteors was getting really close to them. It was a little ways below them, and he had no idea if the ship was trying to avoid it or if it was doing nothing about it.

"Um...hey, Ezra?" Fate looked at the Carapacian in question, and the latter of the two looked at the former and tilted his head slightly, his small, beady eyes staring at the human. "Is that hunk of rock there getting closer to us or what?"

Ezra blinked and looked out the window. He stared at the meteorite for a few moments before looking at Fate. His response was a simple shrug. He couldn't tell for sure what was going on, but hopefully it wasn't anything dangerous.

Fate sighed and nodded. He was about to say something else when the ship had suddenly slowed down. They were right on top of the meteor, and the whole craft shook as it landed right on the meteorite.

"Landing process complete," a female, robotic voice said from somewhere on the ship, most likely from some non-existent P.A. system that was somewhere on the craft. "Now removing the floors."

"Wait, what?" Removing the floors? What the heck? Before Fate could ask too many question, though, the ground below them actually did open up. Fate looked down and could just barely see the top of the meteor also retracting, as if it wasn't an actual meteor and was instead a building with a retractable roof.

Fate and Ezra then began to fall. They were both flailing about wildly as they fell, but the fall didn't last for long, thankfully. It was only a few seconds long. Fate landed on the ground below them with a thud, landing right on his front. Fate couldn't help but feel like he belly flopped onto concrete as he sat up and looked around.

Fate found himself in a dingy, abandoned looking lab. The walls were grey and there was dust on some of the machines in the room. Others had...cobwebs? There were spiders out here? They better not be giant spiders, like on his planet. If he finds one giant spiderweb Fate is going to flip out.

The last thing the human had noticed was the one machine that didn't have dust on it. He tilted his head and stood up. He walked over to the machine and ran his hand over the keyboard attached to it. It was like some computer, maybe? It seemed like it.

Fate turned around and looked at his Carapacian companion. "You have any idea what this thing is?"

Ezra, like Fate expected him to, shook his head and just shrugged. He definitely expected Ezra to not say any words. This guy really was a man of few words.

"Well, let's see what this does…" he muttered as he began to press on a few of the keyboard buttons. The screen above the keyboard lit up and showed a date and location.

"March 26th, 2001," the screen read as it fell upon a scene that looked...really familiar to Fate, at least. It was...hey! That was his dad's old place in Florida. Well, when Florida wasn't destroyed, at least. Fate never got a chance to see his dad's old house. Only in pictures.

The screen then zoned in on a man walking towards his house. It didn't take long for Fate to realize that was his dad. The black, buzz-cut hair and the yo-yo the man was playing with was enough indication. Fate's dad was only a block or two away from the house, and while he walked, the screen zoned in on something else. Something in the sky.

It was a small meteor, hurtling towards the surface of the earth at a hundred miles an hour. It was heading straight towards the man's house, and when the meteor had landed, not much of the house had remained. There were a few rooms off to the side that had stayed safe from the destruction, but most of it was gone.

The man had noticed the destruction from the block away and ran towards what was his house. When he got there, the meteorite was gone, probably destroyed in the collision, and what was left was a green-eyed baby. The baby was asleep as if nothing had happened, and the man walked over to the baby and picked him up.

Fate, who as watching all of this on the screen provided, frowned and hovered his cursor over the man who he was certain was his dad. Was...this how his father's house become destroyed. Talk about unlucky…

Fate then attempted to double click his father. The rest of the screen blacked out until all that was remaining was a still-image of his father. The computer then started flashing the word "Scanning" at him. Soon afterwards, a flash of green had erupted from behind Fate, and he turned around.

What the boy saw was the figure of his father, but it wasn't actually his father. It was like a sculpture made out of some weird...green goo. Fate had no idea what that was about, and was about to move towards the figure, but it collapsed into green goo and was sucked into a nearby vacuum.

"Um...right," Fate muttered before looking back to the keyboard, deciding to ignore that from now. One weird thing at a time, please. "Moving on…"

Fate pressed the right arrow key on the keyboard and the scenery had changed. It was showing an island out in the Caribbean. There was a house that was currently under construction, and the screen soon zoomed in on some woman that looked...very stuck up. She was wearing a fur coat and was sipping wine from a martini glass. She had to have been snobby. Yuck.

Fate shook his head as the screen zoomed in on another meteor that was hurdling towards the construction area. Instead of decimating what was the beginnings of a house, the meteor broke through the ground and landed in some...cave area. The screen then showed the inside of the cave, where the meteor had landed. It had landed next to some weird...frog thing. Fate wasn't sure what that was about.

The rich, probably snobby lady had suddenly jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, which wasn't a particularly safe move, and walked over to where the meteor had landed. There, she found a baby girl who was too busy giggling without a care in the world to have noticed her. The woman picked her up and began to walk out of the hole in the earth.

Before she could get out of the view of the screen, Fate clicked on her with his mouse. Once again the screen said it was scanning something. A few seconds later, once again, there was a flash of green behind Fate. This time he ignored all the sounds coming from behind him. Ignoring the quiet plopping noise as the goo fell to the floor, and ignoring the louder whirring noise as the goo was sucked up into some machine.

What Fate didn't ignore, though, was the flash that came from behind him once again. He blinked and turned around to see four babies, and two of them looked incredibly similar to the two children Fate had saw on the screen. The other two...he had no idea who they were.

Fate blinked and looked at Ezra, who looked just as confused as he did. "Uh...hey, Ezra?" he asked as he knelt down. "Could you do me a favor and take care of those babies? We can...figure out what to do with them later." Hopefully he didn't have to take care of them. Otherwise this game just got even worse. He had no idea how to raise a child.

Ezra nodded and quickly ran towards the babies. He sat down with them and showed them the pencil and another piece of paper he had before beginning to draw something that'd hopefully keep the babies occupied.

Fate smiled slightly and then looked back at the screen. The scene had changed and now they were...in the middle of the lake. There was an island in the lake, and on that island was a small shack that really looked out of place. A woman had gotten into a rowboat and was rowing out onto the lake. Fate was only able to stare at this for a few seconds before a meteor crashed into the lake, right next to where the woman was.

The rowboat, along with the woman, were thrown backward due to the disrupted water. The rowboat landed upside down on the island, the woman still in it. Fate had thought something had happened to her, but instead, the canoe hopped into the air and towards the lake, spinning around in mid-air so that it was the right way up.

The woman, who was the entire reason the canoe had gotten back into the water, then rowed back to where the meteor was. Instead of sinking into the bottom, it floated to the top of the lake. On that meteor was a baby girl, seeming to be undisturbed by the impact, or by the cold.

The woman didn't seem to hesitate. She picked up the girl and cuddled her like she was some kind of teddy bear. It was kind of an adorable moment, but Fate snapped out of it and clicked the woman with her mouse. What would happen if he scanned more adults?

The computer scanned the woman and, a few seconds later, the goop was sucked into another tube that was connected to the machine behind Fate. Fate didn't bother to look behind him and instead tried to switch the scene once again. He pressed the right arrow key and the scene changed once again.

Now they were in some random city. A small one, at least. The screen quickly flashed the words "Rhode Island" before it focused on a man walking down the street, towards his favorite gag shop. He must have been on his way to buy some wonderful gag gifts for his friend. What was unknown to him was the meteor hurtling down onto the planet.

The meteor landed on the gag shop, most likely killing anyone who was inside, and the man had quickly picked up his speed to observe the reck. Like the others before him, the man came across a baby in the middle of the wreckage. Like the other adults before him, as if this was a normal occurrence, the man picked up the baby and then continued moving, as if nothing happened.

While the computer scanned the man, Fate couldn't help but admire the way they were handling these situations. They were treating kids falling from the sky in meteors like it was a normal, everyday occurrence. Well, either way, once the machine was done vacuuming up some more goop, there was another flash right as Fate changed the scene.

Fate blinked and turned around only to find four more babies surrounding Ezra, who looked like he was panicking at the moment, as one of the babies had grabbed his pencil and was using it as a teething toy.

Fate frowned and looked back at the screen. He didn't know what he was looking at at the moment, but decided to just ignore it for the moment. He knew that a meteor was going to come up and this poor blonde woman here was probably going to have something ruined.

Fate sighed and turned around, walking to Ezra. "Okay, uh...there's a lot of babies here," he said to himself as the screen behind him kept going. "And I have no idea what to do with you guys, so...this may be a problem."

Ezra blinked and looked at Fate before pointing to the screen. He seemed to be wanting to tell him something, but since Ezra never talked, Fate had no idea what he wanted. "Uh...the computer thing? What about it?"

Ezra stood up and rushed to the screen, grabbing Fate's hand as he passed by, dragging the human with him. Once he stopped in front of the screen, he pointed at Fate and then at the screen, as if to tell him to focus only on the screen.

Fate frowned and, just as there was another flash of green, nodded and looked at the screen. "Okay, you want me to look? Fine, I'll keep looking. Have fun with those kids."

Ezra nodded and ran off as the screen changed the scene once again. Now the scene was somewhere in the woods. It was a beautiful looking area, and Fate couldn't help but wonder where they were. A quick flash on the screen said they were in the midwest before focusing on a man who was chopping down a few trees. Of course, like the others before him, the man didn't know about the meteor falling down from the sky.

The meteor, like all the others, struck down on the earth. It landed somewhere deeper into the forest, and it was caused so much disruption that most of the birds flew out of their trees. It cleared out many of the trees, leaving a big opening in the woods.

The man, like all the others, made his way to the source of all the destruction, and he came across a small, redheaded child that was lying next to a couple of dead birds. Not exactly a pretty sight. The redheaded baby girl was currently crying her vocal cords out, but the man had beared through it and picked her up. The computer made quick work of scanning him, and there was a green flash shortly followed by another flash, but it was white instead of green.

Fate turned around and, like he expected, there were four other babies there, and Ezra really looked like he was freaking out. Fate sighed and put the palm of his hand to his face. Great. Now there's twelve babies on this ship...he was going to have to figure out what to do with these things…

=== Fate: Deal with the babies

* * *

 **Okay, so, this is split up into two chapters because I didn't want a crazy big chapter, but don't worry, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow. You won't have to wait until next week. Until then, though, have fun reading!**


	41. Ectobiologist in Training (Part 2)

Thankfully Fate's way of dealing with the babies wasn't the same way as Phil dealing with the baby doll, which was, if you don't remember, shooting the baby until it stopped crying. It didn't work, as you could probably guess. It wasn't an actual baby, thankfully. That'd be awfully messy.

"Okay, let's see who all of you are," Fate said as he picked up the nearest baby, which happened to be the green eyes and black haired one. Were these his...friends? No...no way. How would that be possible? But...one of those clones came from Rhode Island? That's where Gale was from. And that one that once scene with his dad's house being crashed into. That was...him?

Fate stared at the baby and tried to figure out who this person was supposed to be. The green eyes, and the black hair...it beared a resemblance to his Armymansprite back at home, except younger. So...this was him? That was possible? How was that possible?

"Gaaaababaga," the baby babbled out and managed to smack Fate on the nose. It didn't hurt, obviously, because it was a baby. Once Fate got smacked, though, the baby giggled like an idiot.

Fate chuckled a bit and put the baby down before patting him on the head. "Okay, okay. I don't know who you are, but you're adorable. You just stay here, bud, okay?"

The baby blinked and began to crawl off. Apparently the babies could crawl already, and Fate had no idea how that happened if they were just created a few minutes ago. Fate shook his head and looked at the other babies. Okay...how many were there? Two, four, six, eight...twelve.

Fate blinked and counted all of the babies again, just to make sure that he counted it all correctly. ...yup. There were twelve of them. Last time Fate checked, he only had five friends, and if that other baby was himself...six. So why were there double the amount of babies here? What happened to make twelve when there should've been six? Were these things evil clones?! Oh god!

Fate shook his head and snapped himself out of his stupid thought process. Okay, no. Evil clones were stupid. Besides, these babies couldn't be evil. They looked absolutely adorable. Nothing adorable could be evil. If they were evil clones, they'd be smacking all of the other babies or something. That's what evil babies do, right?

"Okay, uh, Ezra? Keep these babies busy. I gotta...I gotta go check something." The Carapacian nodded at the human and continued to doodle...whatever he was drawing on that piece of paper. Fate turned around and walked towards the computer to figure out what to do.

Now, Fate wasn't a computer scientist or anything, and he certainly wasn't the IT guy, who was arguably even better. Turning the computer off and back on again? That's a genius right there! They're an important member of society!

...Uh, anyways, back on topic. Fate wasn't a computer scientist, or the IT guy, but he was going to try and figure out what happened. He looked to the screen and saw that the program had stopped and went to a desktop image which was just a black screen. While it was a bit unsettling, there were a few icons on the desktop. There was a program named "Ectobiology", there was a folder named "Successful clones", and there was a last one called "Results".

Fate clicked on the folder that said results and the folder opened up to show only one word document, and it was labeled with today's date. Fate clicked on that and a word document opened instantly.

"Six subjects had been scanned using the ectobiology process," Fate read aloud as Ezra continued to doodle to try and please the babies. Fate's reading aloud soon turned into mumbling and stumbling over some big scientific words. Most of this stuff wasn't getting soaked up by his brain, and instead was going through his eyes and out his ears. Nothing was getting in that brain of his.

From what he could tell, though, the scanned subjects made four clones per pair, and all of the four clones were related. How were they related? He had no clue. Maybe a brother and sister sort of thing? That was...most likely? Fate had no idea. He wasn't an...Ectobiologist? That's what it'd be called, right? Sounds about right…

Fate shook his head and looked at the babies, still babbling nonsense and now crowding around Ezra as he still made doodles on his paper. It was a surprise he hadn't ran out of space on that paper by now, unless he was just drawing really small doodles. If these babies were all related, and they were his friends...what the heck did that mean?

Fate would have to think about it later, though, because suddenly, an alarm had gone off, as well as really loud beeping, like a time bomb about to go off. Fate looked around the lab before looking back at the screen. Suddenly, a clock showed up, counting down from five minutes. Under the timer it read "Warning! Collision course has been detected. Five minutes until collision. Escape pods will now be available."

Fate blinked and stared at the timer for a few seconds before deciding it was time to freak out. The babies had already freaked out due to the alarm, and now it was Fate's turn to freak out. Oh god what could he do what could he do?! This meteor was going to crash! What was going to happen then?

=== Fate: Calm yourself!

Fate blinked and suddenly smacked himself in the face, knocking him out of his panic. Okay, okay, he can do this. Just...find out what to do. It said something about escape pods or something, right? He can get himself out and all these babies as well.

"Ezra!" Fate shouted as he ran towards the group of babies. He picked up the one that looked a lot like a younger version of him and began to walk around the lab, scanning the walls for anything looking like a door...or an escape pod. "Grab one of the kids. We need to get to an escape pod."

The Dersite nodded and took the little blonde boy before running towards the older human. The baby boy was smacking him on the head, but the Dersite ignored it and followed Fate. The Dersite didn't want anyone to die!

Fate continued to follow the edge of the lab, trying to find anything that looked like an escape pod. The place was a lot bigger than you'd think just from looking at it on the outside. It was huge! How did this lab even get here? ...No time to question that.

Suddenly, Fate noticed the pods that were embedded in the wall. There were, conveniently enough, thirteen of them in total. That was enough for all of the babies and him and Ezra, if they could share the pod. Fate opened one of the pods and noticed...it was really cramped in here. There was enough room to walk around, and apparently enough room to fit a crib in the corner. Fate...wasn't going to question it. This was too conveniant to ask questions.

"Alright, you're going to be okay," Fate muttered to the baby as he put him down on the crib. Could he just launch this pod off into space? Maybe it'd be something like Superman? This baby may just land on a planet and save a whole bunch of lives. ...yeah, that was a good thought. Just think about that, and not the fact you're launching a baby off into space.

Fate walked outside and closed the door. When the door closed behind him, he found a panel that had a blinking, bright green button. Fate did what you always do with a bright flashing button. He pushed it, and soon afterwards he heard rockets going off. Fate assumed that the pod had launched off into space. He wasn't going to open the door to find out.

As Fate looked at the timer, noting that he only had three minutes to get the other ten children and himself into the other pods, he saw Ezra hopping out of the pod and slamming the door shut before jumping up and hitting the bright green button.

"Do you know what you're doing, Ezra?" Fate asked as he rushed towards another one of the babies. This was also a blonde, but it was a girl. He didn't know any blonde girls, so he didn't know where this thing came from. He looked back at the carapacian and saw him shake his head as he speedwalked past Fate to pick up another baby.

"Well...you seem to know what you're doing," Fate muttered before walking to another one of the pods. Despite the fact that he was probably saving these babies from death, he got a bad feeling from launching these pods out into space. Launching babies out into space probably wasn't good for their health, but at least there was a chance for these guys to survive, then.

"Okay, you're going to be okay...baby I don't know." He shook his head and put the baby in the crib. There was a small heart pillow in this one, which the baby grabbed as soon as she was dropped into the crib. Fate quickly walked out of the pod and shut the door before launching it off into space.

Fate continued this process with the other babies. There wasn't any issue getting them in. Well, actually, one of them wouldn't stop crying. Fate could have just launched that one off into space, yeah, but...he didn't want to leave the baby crying. That took a good minute out of his time, and Ezra had to leave a drawing of a bird in the crib to calm the boy down, but it was worth it.

Fate shut the pod door and launched the last baby out into space. They were going to be fine...they were going to be fine.

"Alright, Ezra," Fate said as he turned to the remaining pod and opened the door. Before he entered, he glanced at the clock. Thirty seconds left. Didn't have much time left, but they'd be leaving soon anyways. "It's time for us to get out of here."

Ezra blinked and looked at the clock. A good five seconds passed before he turned back to Fate and shook his head.

"...no?" Fate blinked and tilted his head as he took a step back into the pod. "What do you mean no? We have to get out of here!"

Ezra shook his head once more and pointed at the panel on the outside, and then the door. He pointed to himself and shook his head. He then ran off as Fate tried to process what he was trying to say.

It didn't take long to figure out. Ezra was saying someone had to activate the panel, and for the pod to launch, the door had to be closed. Someone had to stay behind, and...Ezra was going to do it?

"Wait, Ezra? You can't stay behind!" Fate said, taking a step out of the pod as he did. The Carapacian rushed towards him and pushed him into the pod. The Carapacian threw a piece of paper into the pod and then closed the door. Before the door closed, Fate noticed that the clock was counting down from ten now. Ten seconds left.

"Hey, let me out!" Fate said as he kicked the door with his good foot. His eyes widened and he grabbed his foot, wincing from the pain. "Ow! Okay...bad idea…"

Fate then tried to push the to push the door open, but he wasn't able to. It was shut tight, and it wasn't going to be opening anytime soon. Honestly...Fate didn't know why he cared about Ezra so much. Maybe because he was one of the few people he had to talk to in this game so far, or maybe it was because the guy was just a good friend, even if they only met a few hours ago.

Before Fate could say anything else, he heard the rockets blast off and the pod was propelled forward. The force was so much that Fate stumbled and was pressed against the door. After a few moments of being pressed against the wall, he was able to turn around and go into a sitting position, his legs going into his chest.

His friend was...gone. He was gone already. Yeah, Fate didn't know the guy for very long, but dang it he had gotten attached to the guy, okay? He was cool! And now, for all he knew, Ezra was going to die in a violent collision of meteors! This pod only had a window in the front, and that wasn't pointing towards the lab. He couldn't see what was happening but...he hoped it wasn't bad.

What Fate didn't know, though, was that the meteor was much smaller compared to the lab. It was just big enough to set off the lab's alarm systems, but not enough to cause serious damage. The lab and the meteor made contact, but the smaller one bounced off harmlessly and continued it's way through space, leaving a lonely Ezra inside a lab in the middle of space.

Fate sighed and just stared out the window and into space. The pod...looked like it was heading right towards the weird flower planet, so he was going right back to where he was before. Great...that's going to be fun. Fate, still thinking about Ezra, and after a minute or two, the babies, stared off into space and just waited for collision on the planet's surface. The pod was cramped and there was no one to keep Fate company except his thoughts...how fun…

=== Fate: Be Gale


	42. Gang Violence

We haven't heard from Gale in forever, now, have we? I think he stopped being important after all that timeline shenanigans. You know what I mean? But since equal screen time is important, he's getting in whether people like it or not.

Gale hadn't had many problems since he entered this timeline. There were the wolves, but they were taken care of easily enough. His pepper spray seemed to be their weakness, and Gale was not afraid to exploit that. Besides that, he had also received a pretty good friend while walking through Wolf Detroit, or whatever you want to call it. He called the dog Yipp, because that was about the only sound it made.

Gale had left Wolf Detroit right now and had started his journey to try and find where he was supposed to go. He was supposed to save a king, right? Something similar to a king, at least, and to do that...well, he assumed he would have to go to some big castle. A big castle would stick out if it was surrounded by all of these buildings. Medieval and Fantasy don't usually clash well.

"You have any idea where to go?" The boy asked as he turned to the wolf pup that had decided to follow him. He didn't know if the little guy had parents or not. If he did, he was pretty quick to abandon them. It'd probably be better if he just stayed with Gale, honestly. The other wolves here weren't as friendly as Yipp.

"Yip yip!" was all the wolf replied with as the two of them continued to walk. Gale didn't expect any other answer, though. None of these consorts seemed like they could talk. They normally just growl and barked and Gale had to guess what they meant. Someone had probably insulted him and he probably said "Thank, same to you". What a lovely thought…

"Right, I don't either," Gale muttered before looking forward, focusing on the road in front of him. Hopefully this place wasn't as big as Earth. It was an entire planet, though, so he could be walking around for a while. Gale didn't want to stay for long, though, considering the only food that he could call edible around here was candy coated dog food.

Suddenly, Gale's headphones, which he had now been wearing for mostly a communication device, had beeped right into his ear with a sound similar to a fire alarm going off. Gale put a hand to his ear as a screen popped out of the earpiece and moved in front of his eyes. He really needed to lower the volume on this thing. Who was messaging him, anyways?

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has begun pestering serialProsecutor (SP)**

EE: Gale?  
EE: you there?  
EE: i wanna talk to someone

EE: and i dont know who else to talk to

EE: Phils not answering his phone and Alma said shes busy Lala is asleep and Echo cant type properly because i dont know

EE: i think an imp got a hold of her computer or something

EE: anyways you there?

SP: Yeah, I'm here.

SP: Why do you need to talk to someone?  
EE: im lonely

EE: im drifting through space in a small pod after hurdling some babies out into space like supermans parents when krypton blew up

SP: ...you launched babies into space?  
SP Why would you do that?

EE: becuase i think they would die otherwise?

EE: the alarms in the lab made it seem like a big problem

SP: Alarms...in a lab...on your planet?

EE: no in space

EE: a flower rocket on my planet launched me up into space and onto the meteor

EE: now im floating back to my planet and waiting to crash

SP: Wait, you're just going to crash?  
SP: Won't that kill you?  
EE: i dont know

EE: maybe

EE: i mean this games probably going to kill us anyways

EE: so how is it with you?

SP: Um...I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out what I have to do.

* * *

Honestly, the so far negative personality of Fate had caught Gale by surprise. He knew the guy for a long time, and he usually wasn't so negative. He took just about everything in stride and just said it was meant to happen. An attitude like this was...almost disturbing.

* * *

EE: ah youre having problems with that too huh?

EE: ...you think these things can video chat?

SP: I think so, yes. Do you want to try it?

 **exaggerateEfficiently (EE) has ceased pestering serialProsecutor (SP)**

Gale blinked at the sudden departure and was about to type something in the chat, but then his headphones let out a ringing sound in his ears, surprising him so much that the boy jumped in the air. He groaned and tapped his headphones, lowering the volume slightly. He then pressed the accept call button and continued walking.

There was a loading circle that was looping for a few seconds. Afterwards, Fate's face showed up on the screen, taking up most of his vision. Well, it wasn't really his face. Fate's computer was a hat, so the screen only showed his eyes. They were a surprising bright green. That was the physical trait that stood out on Fate the most. His eyes had such a bright color to them.

"Hey," Fate said before chuckling. "The screens are kind of close, aren't they? I can only see your eye. Here, give me a moment."

Fate took the hat off his head and held it away from him, but he still pointed the camera at him. It took him a few moments to adjust the camera for a good angle, but afterwards he gave the camera a thumbs up. "This good?"

"Yeah, that's fine," the boy on the other line said. He had to focus on the screen in front of his eyes, so the rest of the world around him became blurry as his vision focused on what was in front of him. The screen only covered one eye as well, so it must've been a strange thing to see for Fate. "I don't think I can do that with my camera. Sorry."

"Oh, that's okay. Don't worry." Fate waved his hand, as if to brush the problem away, and Gale's concern disappeared soon after. "They say your eyes lead to your soul. Maybe if I look close enough I can find it. Wouldn't that be cool? Though, i don't know what a soul would really look like."

"You really believe in that stuff?" Gale wasn't one to get all spiritual. He didn't really believe in ghosts, or bothered to talk about them. The same goes with a soul. After all...how can you be sure you have one? There's no evidence.

"No, not really." Fate shrugged as he stared off to the side, looking at something. "I'm just thinking about something to talk about. I've been dealing with silence for a while. It'd be nice to have a conversation."

Gale nodded, though Fate may not have noticed due to how close the camera was. "You think this game is really going to kill us? I've been handling myself pretty well. Can't be sure about the others, though. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to many people.

"Yeah...I dunno. I just have that feeling, you know?" Fate shrugged as he tapped on the screen and slid his finger across the camera momentarily. "I'm going to try and build your house up while we're talking. I think we have to do that? I don't know. Military baby me didn't give me much information."

"Military baby you?" Gale asked as he came across a small building which was off the road a little ways to the right. Deciding it was a good place to stop, Gale walked to the building and leaned against the wall.

"It's a long story," Fate said with a light chuckle as his finger slid across the computer screen. The bad part about having a touch screen was that it was so small. He was doing a bunch of things completely on accident. Just his luck, honestly. Wouldn't be the first time he did something on accident. "Honestly, I'd rather not talk about it. How's your planet coming along?"

"Well, it's a really chaotic place, but I know what I have to do." Gale kneeled down and patted Yipp on the head, scratching behind the wolf pup's ears. "I have to put a king in control and make the people here get back into shape."

"Wait, you have to put a king back in control?" Fate asked before shaking his head. "Man, you got the cool mission! I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. I think I have to kill giant beetles? I don't know."

"I'm sure you'll find out eventually." Gale pulled a small bone out of his pocket and tossed it in the air. Yipp leaped into the air and caught it in his mouth before walking away to use it as a chew toy. "You seem to have a way of getting through times like this, you know?"

"Times like this?" Fate chuckled. "Times where I'm hurtling through space on an escape pod? I didn't realize I go through those times a lot."

"Well, you know what I mean. Times where you don't know what to do. Come on, Fate. You've been through a lot. Your heating once went out in the middle of winter. You've been without electricity for days at a time, and you've been able to still have a social life with some people on the internet even though you've been having a bunch of problems. You're very persistent. You're tough."

"I'm tough? Tough...right. Ready to take what life throws at me." A not so enthusiastic chuckle emitted from Fate's mouth as he seemed to slouch just slightly. "And life definitely knows how to throw things at me, huh? First being as poor as dirt, and now I have to deal with this game, and with hurtling towards hard ground at who knows how many miles per hour. Thanks, universe. You sure know how to treat a guy."

"Fate, you're starting to rant," Gale said with a frown. This definitely wasn't like Fate. Whatever happened on that lab must have affected him. Or the fact he was shot off into space. Probably both. "Look, just stay strong, alright? You can handle this. If you build up my house, get it to one of those gates, maybe I could visit you. I'm sure one of those gates leads to your house."

"You think so?" Fate asked, his slouch being corrected just slightly as he heard the news. Having a friend come over would really perk him up.

Gale nodded. "Yeah, I think so. There has to be some way for the players to interact, right?" Gale walked away from the wall and continued moving. Speaking of players, he needed to play this game, or else nothing was going to happen. He had to keep moving.

"Then I better get going!" Fate said, a smile suddenly showing up on his face as he put the hat back on his head. After the camera stopped moving, it focused on those bright green orbs once again. "If I'm going to get a friend over, I wanna do it as quick as possible. I'm going to hang up so I can get going. See ya, my man."

Gale smiled at this, happy to have his friend back to his normal self, and even a bit more cheerful, actually. "See you later, Fate. Good luck."

With that said, the call ended and the screen went back into Gale's headphones. The boy smiled wider and looked back to see Yipp following him, stopping every once and awhile to gnaw on the bone, but he'd catch up once he was done gnawing.

Gale seemed to get a bit quicker in his steps, ready to get into the game. The sense of accomplishment from making a friend feel better was enough to get him moving. He had a good feeling about what was coming to him in this game.

=== Some time later…

A few minutes had passed and Gale had ended up in another town. It wasn't nearly as big as Wolf Detroit, but it still seemed decently sized from what he had seen so far. There were still wolves walking all along the street, as if they didn't have houses to live in. Everytime he passed by a wolf, they would growl at him until they walk off. Gale had even saw some of them take a step towards him. They were getting more and more aggressive towards him as he kept on moving.

"This place can't be safe," he muttered as he looked at Yipp. He was still happily chewing on the bone Gale had given him a while ago, but by now it was only half of what it had used to be. It was surprising that someone so seemingly innocent as Yipp could live in a place like this. Though, even in a chaotic place there are those who follow the rules...like Batman. ...Did that make Gale Batman? Was he the Knight? Well, he was definitely the hero this city deserves…

He was suddenly brought out of his thinking by the sound of a howl. It wasn't a distant howl, either. It was pretty close. Gale blinked and looked around to see a wolf was coming out of one of the alleyways. Following him into the street, and towards Gale, were a few other wolves. There were at least four of them that he could see already, and they all approached him, as if they were part of a gang.

Gale frowned and took a quick step back. He brought out his vacuum and prepared for the worst. He didn't know much about this town, but he assumed it'd be just as bad as Wolf Detroit. These guys weren't going to be any more friendly towards him.

"Hey, come on, I'm not here to cause trouble," the boy said as he moved took a few steps further down the road. He pointed his vacuum at the wolves, gesturing for Yipp to follow. He had to take one hand off of his weapon, causing it to droop slightly. The wolves took this as an opportunity and took a few steps towards him, covering much ground in only a few steps.

Gale quickly put his hand on his weapon once more and brought it up, pointing it at the wolves once again. The wolves bared their teeth at him and growled louder than before. Wolves that had just been walking down the street heard and saw all the commotion and began to make a circle around them, expecting to see some violence.

"I'm just trying to see where the castle is, or...wherever your king used to be." Hearing him say "king" a few of the wolves in the crowd began to growl as well while the gang wolves barked at him.

"Yipp?" Gale asked, and the little wolf pup beside him let out a bark. The pup didn't seem to process the situation at hand, since there was still some cheer in his bark. "Get away from here. I'll...I'll catch up to you."

The wolf pup nodded and ran down the road. The crowd parted to let the pup through before closing again to watch what would happen next.

Gale gripped his weapon tightly and had a stare-down with the four wolves in front of him. The wolves took another step towards him, their growing increasing in volume as the distance between them decreased.

"I don't want to hurt you," Gale said as he took a step to the side, further down the street and towards the way Yipp had went. He wanted to get away as soon as possible. This wasn't supposed to be happening. He needed to get out. "I don't want to, but I will if I have to."

The wolves didn't seem to understand his threat, since one of the four wolves pounced at him, opening it's mouth and showing its sharp teeth. It was clearly intent on ripping his throat out.

Gale's eyes widened and he stepped to the side before turning on his vacuum. The spray shot out of the device and hit the wolf right in the face as it flew through the air. The attack had caught the wolf off guard and it wasn't able to stop itself as he landed on the ground and ended up tumbling a few feet away.

"Out of the way!" Gale shouted out before running towards the crowd. Not wanting to get ran over, most of them had cleared the way for him, but others, who apparently weren't happy with him attacking the wolf, clawed at him. One of the had swiped his cheek, leaving a red mark on his face, which quickly began bleeding.

The boy winced and put a hand to his cheek, but continued running. He put his vacuum away and instead brought out a normal can of pepper spray. No, it wouldn't be as painful as his vacuum, since it wouldn't shoot out as much spray, but he could move faster carrying a can rather than a whole vacuum.

As Gale ran, he could hear the wolves chasing after him. It was difficult to hear them, since they weren't growling at him or making much noise as they ran, but if he listened hard enough, he could tell, but just barely. He wasn't going to turn around to see if they were catching up. That'd just make him panic.

Gale soon came across Yipp, who was laying down in the middle of the street and waiting for the boy to show up. When Yipp saw Gale running towards him, he stood up and barked, his tail waving back and forth rapidly.

"Come on, Yipp, we gotta go," Gale said, stopping just briefly to snap his fingers at the pup before running once again. The pup caught on quickly and followed the human, still not seeming to quite understand the danger that was facing the two of them.

Gale then turned the corner, making a right as soon as he could. Once he rounded the corner, he ran into the nearest alleyway he could find and went as far into it as he could. Once he was far enough in, he sat down and took big, silent breaths.

Yipp ran towards him and waved his tail back and forth, panting with excitement. Gale put a finger to his lips to shush the dog, and he seemed to understand, since as soon as Gale shushed him, he had shut his mouth. Gale held his breath and waited for what would happen next.

He stayed in that alleyway for a while, keeping as quiet as he possibly could and hoping the wolves wouldn't find him. A few minutes later, he slowly stood up and walked to the entrance of the alleyway. He looked both ways, up and down the street, before letting out a sigh of relief and stepping out of the alley. They were gone, great...now he can get back to work. He put his can of pepper spray away before walking further down the street. He still needed to find this castle…

=== Gale: Be Phil

* * *

 **Okay, guys, here to say something. Due to the flurry of exams heading my way and the summer break that's coming along soon afterwards, I may not be able to update as much, since summer kind of screws up my updating schedule due to having so many distractions around. I'll try my best to have some weekly updates, but it's already not going well, but still, hopefully I can improve. Just don't expect too much. Though, until next time, have fun reading.**


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